Yahoo – AFP,
Anna Maria Jakubek, 23 April 2014
SWIDWIN
(Poland) (AFP) - The first American troops arrived in Poland on Wednesday,
after Washington said it was sending a force of 600 there and to the Baltic
states amid rising tensions with Russia over Ukraine.
Some 130
soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade -- nicknamed "Sky Soldiers"
-- touched down early afternoon in Swidwin, in the northwest of the country,
and were welcomed by Poland's defence minister.
"Every
day we work on the defence of our country but in a world that is changing, and
that is full of threats, we need strong and steadfast allies such as the United
States and NATO," Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said under a cloudy sky.
The first American troops
arrive at the
airport in Swidwin, Poland on April 23,
2014 (AFP Photo/Janek
Skarzynski)
|
A further
450 US troops will be deployed in the next few days in the ex-Soviet Baltic
states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, following Washington's announcement
Tuesday that it would increase its presence in the region to reassure its NATO
"allies and partners".
"Poland
has been there for the United States," US ambassador to Poland Stephen
Mull said at the ceremony in accented Polish.
"And
today, as the transatlantic community confronts Russia's unacceptable
aggression against Poland's neighbour Ukraine, a sovereign and independent
state, we have a solemn obligation in the framework of NATO to reassure Poland
of our security guarantee."
US troops
are due to carry out military exercises in the region for the rest of the year.
"We're
going to do everything from rifle ranges to company live fires.... The plan
here is not to do training for a show. We're going to do some very good and
hard infantry training with the Polish Sixth Airborne Brigade," said Major
Michael Weisman, the US brigade's spokesman.
"We're
paratroopers, so our job in Europe is we're the contingency response force. So
we're prepared to go anywhere in the world under 18 hours and we're usually the
force that commanders call for when there's an important mission," he told
AFP.
'Threats
are real'
The US has
pulled no punches in describing the purpose of the mission, with Pentagon
spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby calling the deployment a "message to
Moscow" that Washington takes its obligations in Europe "very, very
seriously".
Russia has
an estimated 40,000 troops poised on Ukraine's eastern border, and NATO has
warned they could strike on short notice if ordered.
Russia has
already annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine since pro-Western protests
forced Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovych from power in February, and
tensions over the ex-Soviet republic continue to deepen.
Kirby said
the Poland exercises are "bilateral" US operations and not NATO
exercises, although he said there was no reluctance by other alliance members
to send ground troops to countries bordering Russia.
Polish and
Baltic leaders have applauded Washington's move.
"I am
happy that allies reacted very quickly, assessed that threats are real and not
imaginary, and the reinforcement comes at our request," Lithuanian
President Dalia Grybauskaite told reporters on Wednesday.
Polish
Defence Minister Tomasz
Siemoniak (R) welcomes US Secretary
of Defense Chuck
Hagel at the begining
of their meeting in Warsaw on January 30,
2014 (AFP
Photo/Janek Skarzynski)
|
Soon after
the welcome ceremony, the US soldiers piled into buses with their bulky travel
bags and left for the nearby town of Drawsko Pomorskie, where they will be
stationed.
Local nurse
Dominik Jawilak stood by the military base gates as the soldiers rode off
waving from the buses.
"We
came here to watch the planes land," said the 40-year-old, who drove up
from the nearby town of Redlo with his sons and their friends.
He said he
was glad to see his country's allies and NATO fulfil their commitments to
Poland but stressed that he did not fear any spillover from the Ukraine crisis.
"No
one here is worried. It's far away from us, for the moment it has nothing to do
with us, and whatever is to happen will happen. We have no influence
over it," he told AFP.
Related Article:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.