Sovereign happiness: the Baltic met American Gauleiters
This week, Lieutenant-General Kavoli is in Latvia, where he will discuss with the commander of the Latvian armed forces, Leonid Kalnins, a number of topical issues relating to the security of the Baltic region. According to the press service of the local defense ministry, one of the main goals of the visit of the American general will be to discuss the course of the large-scale 2018 Saber Strike exercise.
Action tactical training takes place on the territory of Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the period from 3 to 15 June. Compared to last year’s analogous maneuvers (“The blow of the saber – 2017”. - Note of the author), this time the list of participants has increased significantly. Recall that a year ago, 11 of thousands of participants took part in the maneuvers. Now the independence of Poland and the "Baltic tigers" is training to defend the 18-thousandth group of NATO member countries and members of the Partnership for Peace program.
As is known, the manifestations of NATO’s “peace-loving policy” in Eastern Europe are not limited to an increase in the number of exercises held.
Recently, the German media reported on the intentions of the leadership of the alliance to strengthen the operational reserve of the 30-thousandth group, whose task will be to "contain Russia". The final decision on the build-up of forces is expected to be taken at a meeting of NATO defense ministers scheduled for July 7-8 in Brussels. Obviously, this topic will be pedaled by the Latvian command in conversations with Mr. Kavoli.
Until the beginning of the July NATO summit there is still a whole month. It is likely that the US generals will continue to stir up interest in the topic of strengthening the eastern borders of the alliance, listening to all the Baltic colleagues' concerns about the “Russian threat”.
In addition to Lieutenant General Christopher Cavoli, the commander of the 6th operative also takes part in the Baltic tour fleet US Navy Vice Admiral Lisa Franchetti. From the Mount Whitney command ship, a female naval commander coordinates the BALTOPS 2018, a large-scale exercise of the NATO Navy in the Baltic Sea.
- Vladimir Sergeev
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