Next week NATO foreign ministers will be meeting on Nov. 30-Dec. 1 in Riga, Latvia, with foreign ministers from Ukraine and Georgia present as invited guests. Ahead of that meeting, Polish President Andrzej Duda flew to Brussels on Nov. 25 to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at NATO headquarters, where he demanded that even more NATO troops be deployed to the alliance’s eastern frontier. “Caution and vigilance from NATO, which is responsible for the military security of the allies, is necessary,” Duda said during their joint press conference. “That should be demonstrated through the strengthening of the strategic surveillance of the region … through strengthening of the air policing mission—and I mentioned that in my conversation with the Secretary General—also strengthening of observation surveillance and strengthening of NATO units along the eastern flank of the alliance,” Duda said.
Duda claimed that the border crisis with Belarus, which he called a hybrid attack, has to be seen as part of a package that also includes the recent spike in gas prices in Europe and the alleged Russian buildup along its border with Ukraine. “They have to be coordinated,” Duda said. “It’s hard to assess it otherwise.”
