NATO to talk reinforcing east Europe

Foreign ministers of NATO member states will discuss new steps to reinforce eastern European countries and the ways of bolstering Ukraine’s armed forces.

On Tuesday, NATO foreign ministers, who are currently meeting in Brussels, will look at options ranging from stepped-up military exercises and sending more forces to eastern member states to the permanent basing of alliance forces in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

US Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute said in a press conference, “They (foreign minister) will talk about… what more can be done to amplify the measures that have been taken already and to sustain them over time so that these measures are not simply short-term gestures.”

The report said the decision-making session had been prompted by what it called concern at Russia’s annexation of Crimea region.

Tensions between the Western powers and Moscow heightened after Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and formally applied to become part of the Russian Federation following a referendum on March 16, in which nearly 97 percent of voters in Crimea said yes to reunion with Russia.

On March 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law documents that officially made the Black Sea peninsula part of the Russian territory despite condemnation from the West and the new Ukrainian government.

The move sparked angry reactions from the United States and the European Union, both imposing punitive measures against a number of Russian officials and authorities in Crimea.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen recently accused Russia of violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty in an article for Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper.