Here's our latest news wrap, focusing on the decision to endorse the new deployments.
WARSAW -- NATO leaders endorsed a major new deployment of armed forces to Eastern Europe, a direct response to growing belligerence from Russia and the largest such move by the alliance since the end of the Cold War.
The decision came as heads of state gathered in the Polish capital July 8 for a two-day summit that U.S. President Barack Obama said “may be the most important moment for our transatlantic alliance" in 25 years.
Aside from Russia, the alliance faces a growing number challenges including Islamic State extremists, cyberattacks, and the influx of millions of people seeking refuge in Europe. Also looming in the background is Britain's vote last month to leave the European Union.
The leaders from the 28 members formally authorized four multinational battalions of up to 1,000 troops to be led by Canada, Germany, Britain, and the United States. They will be stationed in Poland and the three Baltic states.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called the new deployments, which had been announced earlier, an appropriate deterrence against Russia.
"Today, we come together at a time of increasing uncertainty," Stoltenberg said.
"We will take important decisions to strengthen our deterrence and defense to protect our countries from attacks from any direction," he said. "We will agree to enhance our forward presence here in Poland as well as in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. We will also strengthen our presence in the southeastern part of our alliance. And we will step up our cyber and ballistic missile defenses."
Much of the summit’s focus is on Russia, which seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014 and backs separatists whose war with Kyiv’s forces has killed more than 9,300 people in Ukraine's east.
Obama reiterated that in a commentary published on the Financial Times website shortly before the summit began.
“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine threatens our vision of a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace,” Obama wrote.
He highlighted attacks that have been fueled by Islamic State militants’ extremist ideology, attacks that “slaughtered innocents in NATO countries, from Orlando to Paris to Brussels to Istanbul.” And he focused on Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, and conflicts “from Africa to Syria to Afghanistan” that have sent migrants to Europe.
“I believe that our nations must summon the political will, and make concrete commitments, to meet these urgent challenges,” wrote Obama, who also met with EU leaders. “In Warsaw, we must reaffirm our determination -- our duty under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty -- to defend every NATO ally.”
The treaty’s Article 5 is the most important component of the alliance, obligating all members to come to the aid of another member if it is attacked. The clause has been invoked only once in the alliance’s 67-year history: after the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
Russia’s interference in Ukraine has increased concerns in Poland and Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which were under Moscow’s thumb until the disintegration of the Soviet Union a quarter-century ago. All are now NATO members.
"We are witnessing the policy of aggression and notorious lack of respect for international law, internal sovereignty, and territorial integrity," Polish President Andrzej Duda said in opening remarks.
Further reflecting the unease many European nations are feeling toward Russia, the leaders of Finland and Sweden— neither of whom are members— were attending the summit for the first time. Governments in both countries have openly discussed the possibility of closer cooperation, or even outright membership, in the alliance, a possibility that prompted thinly veiled threats from Moscow.
The U.S.-led battalion comes on top of an additional armored U.S. brigade, which U.S. officials announced earlier this year would begin rotating into Eastern Europe on a regular basis. That brings the number of fully manned U.S. combat brigades with a presence in Europe to three. A brigade comprises about 4,200 to 4,500 troops.
Stoltenberg and other leaders also tried to offer a fig leaf to Moscow, saying alliance would "continue to seek meaningful and constructive dialogue" with Russia, which he called “an integral part of European security."
"NATO does not seek confrontation.... The Cold War is history and should remain history,” he said.
The NATO-Russia Council, which was set up in the 1990s to address Russia’s misgivings about the alliance expanding eastward, is to meet next week for the second time this year. The council was suspended in 2014 following Russia’s seizure of Crimea.
“Even as our nations remain open to a more constructive relationship with Russia, we should agree that sanctions on Russia must remain in place until Moscow fully implements its obligations in Ukraine,” Obama said.
French President Francois Hollande also sounded a conciliatory note toward Russia, saying it should not be considered a threat but rather a partner.
"NATO has no role at all to be saying what Europe's relations with Russia should be. For France, Russia is not an adversary, not a threat," Hollande said.
"Russia is a partner which, it is true, may sometimes, and we have seen that in Ukraine, use force which we have condemned when it annexed Crimea," he added.
Earlier, Duda took an even harder line, saying NATO must stand firm in the face of what he called Russian “blackmail and aggression.”
“Everyone who is tempted to apply the rule of force even for a moment” must be made to “understand quickly that is does not pay off,” Duda said.
In addition to military force, Western governments say President Vladimir Putin’s Russia has used cyberattacks, propaganda, and other methods in an effort to destabilize European countries and undermine Western unity.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was “absurd to speak of a threat from Russia” and that Moscow hoped "common sense" would prevail at the summit.
“Russia was and is open to dialogue and interested in cooperation -- but only on a mutually beneficial basis and taking into account mutual interests,” Peskov said in a conference call with journalists on July 8.
In an interview in the newspaper Kommersant, Russia's ambassador to NATO, Aleksandr Grushko, said the alliance has a “confrontational agenda" and that Moscow would take countermeasures.
NATO leaders, however, have said Russia’s aggression in Ukraine was what led to the deploying of additional forces. They have also taken Moscow to task for potentially dangerous maneuvers in recent months such as jets buzzing U.S. warships.
Critics of the increased NATO deployments say they are too small to serve as a serious deterrent and may only increase Russia’s ire.
But former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that "Putin needs no provoking -- he is the provocateur.”
“We need to remember that Putin will be far less likely to engage in provocation if he sees a NATO that is unified, strong, and determined to push back against any aggressive move on his part,” Albright said at a discussion of experts held alongside the summit.
One thing that is not expected is substantial movement toward NATO membership for Ukraine or for Georgia. Those two countries’ aspirations join the alliance were a catalyst of a five-day war in 2008 during which Russian forces drove deep into the former Soviet republic.
Montenegro, however, is participating in the Warsaw Summit as an observer after signing a preliminary agreement in May. The Balkans nations is expected to formally join the alliance next year.
Beyond NATO, Obama said that “our alliance must do more on behalf of global security, especially on Europe’s southern flank. NATO should intensify its commitment to the campaign to destroy (IS) and do more to help the EU shut down criminal networks that are exploiting desperate migrants crossing the Mediterranean and Aegean seas.”
He said his decision to maintain 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan though the end of his presidency “should encourage more allies and partners to affirm their commitment to the NATO mission to train Afghan forces.”
With reporting by AP, dpa, Interfax, The Financial Times, Reuters.
WATCH: NATO must do more to help Eastern allies like Ukraine and Georgia, according to Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius. Speaking to RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak at the NATO summit in Warsaw, he also welcomed the decision to deploy a NATO battalion to his country.
The summit has begun for a second day. From the AP:
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — U.S. President Barack Obama and other NATO leaders have begun the second day of a summit meeting in Warsaw that's expected to lead to decisions about Afghanistan, the central Mediterranean and Iraq.
On Friday, leaders approved the deployment of four multinational NATO battalions to Poland and the Baltic states to deter Russia, as well as a Romanian-Bulgarian brigade for the Black Sea region.
The Warsaw summit, NATO's first in two years, is considered by many to be the alliance's most important since the Cold War.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says NATO needs to adapt to confront an array of new threats to its member nations' security, including cyberattacks and violent extremism generated by radical Muslim organizations like the Islamic State group.
Here is our latest wrap-up of the summit from our news desk:
LONG Afghanistan, Ukraine On NATO Summit Agenda
By RFE/RL
WARSAW -- NATO leaders shifted the focus to conflict-plagued Afghanistan and Ukraine on Day Two of a summit that produced a plan to deploy military forces to member-states near the border of an increasingly assertive Russia.
The 28-nation Western alliance is set to extend its Resolute Support mission, which trains and advises Afghan security forces following the withdrawal of the bulk of foreign troops at the end of 2014.
NATO is also expected to continue financing Afghan forces with about $4 billion a year through 2020.
“We are committed to assisting the Afghan forces to secure their country and to ensure it never again becomes a safe haven for international terrorism,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said ahead of the July 8-9 summit in Warsaw.
U.S.-led forces entered Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks in 2001 and drove the Taliban, which had harbored Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, from power. But the insurgents have not been defeated and by some accounts now hold more territory than at any time since 2001.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced on July 6 that the United States would keep 8,400 troops in Afghanistan through the end of his term in January 2017, the latest in a series of decisions to slow the drawdown of U.S. forces there.
Ahead of the NATO summit, Obama said his decision “should encourage more allies and partners to affirm their commitment to the NATO mission to train Afghan forces.”
Resolute Support now involves about 13,000 troops from 39 countries.
In the afternoon of the second and final day of the Warsaw summit, alliance leaders are to meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for a session of the NATO-Ukraine Commission.
NATO’s moves to bolster its defenses in the east have been prompted largely by concerns about the intentions of Russia, which seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014 and backs separatists whose war with Kyiv’s forces has killed more than 9,300 people in eastern Ukraine since that April.
A French- and German-brokered peace deal known as the Minsk agreement imposed a cease-fire, but it is violated frequently and the separatists continue to hold parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Progress on political aspects of the Minsk agreement, which was meant to resolve the conflict and restore Kyiv’s control over Ukraine’s entire border with Russia, has been slow.
On the first day of the summit, July 8, NATO leaders from the 28 members formally authorized four multinational battalions of up to 1,000 troops to be stationed on a rotating basis in Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
They will be led by the United States, Canada, Britain, and Germany.
“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine threatens our vision of a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace,” Obama wrote in a commentary published on the Financial Times website on July 8. He said NATO must “reaffirm our determination -- our duty…to defend every NATO ally.”
The U.S.-led battalion comes on top of an additional armored U.S. brigade, which U.S. officials announced earlier this year would begin rotating into Eastern Europe on a regular basis. That brings the number of fully manned U.S. combat brigades with a presence in Europe to three. A brigade comprises about 4,200 to 4,500 troops.
Russia’s interference in Ukraine has increased concerns in Poland and the three Baltic states, which were under Moscow’s thumb until the collapse of communism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union a quarter-century ago. All are now NATO members.
In addition to military force, Western governments say that under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has used cyberattacks, propaganda, and other methods in an effort to destabilize European countries and undermine Western unity.
Russia has criticized NATO’s deployment plans.
Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the foreign policy committee in the upper parliament house, likened them to “building a dam in the desert,” and Putin’s spokesman said on July 8 that it was “absurd to speak of a threat from Russia.”
Stoltenberg said that "NATO does not seek confrontation” and will “continue to seek meaningful and constructive dialogue" with Russia. He and other NATO leaders say Russia’s actions in Ukraine have forced the alliance to bolster its defenses.
Obama said that “even as our nations remain open to a more constructive relationship with Russia, we should agree that sanctions on Russia must remain in place until Moscow fully implements its obligations” under the Minsk agreement.
The NATO-Russia Council, which was set up in the 1990s to address Russia’s misgivings about the alliance expanding eastward, is to meet next week for the second time this year. The council was suspended in 2014 following Russia’s seizure of Crimea.
With reporting by Reuters, dpa, AP, AFP, and Interfax
Stoltenberg is speaking now:
LATEST: NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan will continue beyond 2016.