MADRID, June 27 (Reuters) – NATO will massively increase its high-alert force to more than 300,000, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.
“We will transform NATO’s response force and increase the number of our high-alert forces to well over 300,000,” he told reporters ahead of the NATO summit in Madrid later this week in Madrid.
The NATO Rapid Reaction Force, the NATO Response Force, has about 40,000 troops so far.
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks at a press conference ahead of the NATO Summit to be held in Madrid, at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 27 June 2022. REUTERS / Johanna Geron
At the Madrid summit, NATO will also change its language for Russia, which was still described as a strategic partner in the alliance’s latest strategy in 2010.
“This will not be the case in the strategic concept that we will agree on in Madrid,” Stoltenberg said.
“I expect the allies to make it clear that Russia is a direct threat to our security, to our values, to the rules-based international order.
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Report by Sabine Siebold and Marin Strauss
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