Senior US congressmen are visiting the Baltic states and Poland to address fears there that president-elect Donald Trump may reduce Washington's commitment to Nato and ease western pressure on Russia over its actions in Ukraine.
The Baltic states and Poland are alarmed by Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, as well as recent Russian war games and the more frequent presence of Russian military aircraft and ships near their borders.
Nato is set to deploy multinational battalions of troops and armour to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, but those states have been unnerved by Mr Trump's suggestion that he could scale back US support for security operations abroad and would welcome a rapprochement with the Kremlin.
“I think the presence of the American troops here in Estonia is a signal that we believe in what [former US president] Ronald Reagan believed, and that is peace through strength,” US senator John McCain said on Tuesday.
“And the best way to prevent Russian misbehaviour by having a credible, strong military and a strong Nato alliance,” he added.
Mr McCain was speaking in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, with fellow Republican senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat senator Amy Klobuchar. Later this week they are scheduled to travel to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, and also to Ukraine, Georgia and Montenegro, three countries where pro-western governments are under major Russian pressure not to align with Nato.
Strong response
Mr McCain insisted that the US would maintain “a strong and significant response” to the actions of a Russia that he said “continued to occupy Crimea and has invaded eastern Ukraine and continues to threaten other nations in the region.”
About 150 US troops have been stationed in each of the three Baltic states and Poland since spring 2014, and last summer Nato decided to establish a stronger presence in those countries to reassure them and deter any aggression from Russia.
This month Ben Hodges, the commander of US forces in Europe, announced that troops would arrive in Germany on January 6th and immediately deploy to Poland, the Baltic states and also Romania – where Nato is ramping up Black Sea surveillance operations and may form another multi-national battalion.
The US forces had been expected to deploy later in January; it is not clear if the change of plan is linked to the timing of Trump’s planned inauguration on January 20th.
Gen Hodges said the US troops’ transfer from Bremerhaven in northern Germany to their Baltic destinations would be used as a test of “how fast the force can move from port to field”.
"I'm confident in the very powerful signal, the message it will send [that] the United States, along with the rest of Nato, is committed to deterrence," he added.
Russia says its increased military spending and activity is only a response to Nato moves to hem it in and reduce its defence capability, particularly with systems like a new US missile shield that is being developed in Romania and Poland.
