Eastern Europeans angst over U.S. posture in their region after Afghanistan withdrawal
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
Oct 5, 11:26 AM
WARSAW, Poland — Eastern European defense ministers said they hope the United States would deploy more troops on their soil, fearing the Pentagon could cut its military presence on NATO’s eastern flank.
Simona Cojocaru, the state secretary at the Romanian Ministry of National Defence, said that “the United States’ military presence in Romania is the best deterrence” against Russia’s potential aggression. More defense “consolidation in the Black Sea” would send “a message to Russia, and a more solid presence that we offer [to the U.S.] is also more strategic flexibility to perform missions in the area,” she added in remarks here at the Warsaw Security Forum, an event organized by the Casimir Pulaski Foundation think tank.
For Romania, one of NATO’s eastern members, Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and the Kremlin’s takeover of the Crimean peninsula put Black Sea security in the center of the country’s security agenda.
https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2021/10/05/eastern-europeans-angst-over-us-posture-in-their-region-after-afghanistan-withdrawal/
