U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts agreed Friday to send thousands of troops, backed by air and naval support, to protect allies near Russia and Ukraine in response to President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade.
Speaking after chairing a NATO summit, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the 30-nation organization will send parts of the NATO Response Force and elements of a quickly deployable spearhead unit to the alliance’s eastern flank. It’s the first time the force has been used to defend NATO allies.
Stoltenberg did not say how many troops would be sent or where they might go, but he did confirm that the move would involve land, sea and air power.
In response to Europe’s biggest security crisis in decades, Stoltenberg said, “We are now deploying the NATO Response Force for the first time in a collective defense context. We speak about thousands of troops. We speak about air and maritime capabilities.”
