NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has suggested increasing NATO's funding for "core deterrence and defense activities."
"This would support Allied deployments in our battlegroups in the eastern part of our Alliance, air policing, maritime deployments and exercises," Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Brussels on Monday ahead of the defense ministerial set to be held February 17-18.
"Spending more together would demonstrate the strength of our commitment to Article 5, our promise to defend each other," the NATO chief said, adding that it would contribute to fairer burden-sharing.
Read alsoStoltenberg reiterates: 'NATO's door remains open' for UkraineThe Bloc also needs to take "a more global approach to deal with global challenges," Stoltenberg stressed, noting that "China and Russia are at the forefront of an authoritarian pushback against rules-based international order."
"So we should enhance our political dialogue and practical cooperation with like-minded partners to promote our values and protect our interests," Stoltenberg concluded.
Memo
Enhanced Forward Presence (EFP) is a NATO-allied forward-deployed defense and deterrence military posture in Central Europe through Poland and Northern Europe through Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, in order to protect and reassure NATO's Central and Northern European member states on NATO's eastern flank of their security, as per Wikipedia.
Following Russia's invasion of Crimea and its war in Donbas, NATO's member states agreed at the 2016 Warsaw summit to forward deploy four multinational battalion battle groups to those NATO member states perceived to be most at risk of a possible Russian attack or invasion.
