US
President Barack Obama has touched down in Estonia. He is due to hold talks
with Baltic leaders as NATO prepares to bolster its military presence in
Eastern Europe amid the Ukraine crisis.
Obama
landed in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, early on Wednesday aboard Air Force
One. He is due to meet Baltic leaders, in what is a symbolic show of solidarity
with Eastern Europe while emphasizing Washington's commitment to the security
of the Baltic states.
It comes a
day ahead of a NATO summit in Newport, Wales, in which Obama and Western allies
will approve plans to position at least 4,000 troops and military equipment in
the region. That plan is an attempt to calm growing insecurity particularly
among Baltic states, nervous about the Russian-backed military intervention in eastern Ukraine.
While
Ukraine is not a part of NATO, alliance members in Eastern and Central Europe
fear they could be Moscow's next targets, prompting the 28-nation bloc to come
up with a more robust response.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin has claimed the right to intervene on behalf of
Russian speakers if Moscow believes their rights are under threat. Estonia,
Latvia and Lithuania - all former Soviet republics that are now NATO members -
have significant Russian minorities.
In 1997,
NATO and Russia signed an agreement in which the Western alliance agreed to not
permanently station a substantial number of combat troops in Eastern Europe. On
Tuesday, Moscow warned NATO against establishing a permanent presence near
Russia's borders, saying it would view such a move as a threat.
"The
fact that the military infrastructure of NATO member states is getting closer
to our borders, including via enlargement, will preserve its place as one of
the external threats for the Russian Federation," Mikhail Popov, deputy
director of Russia's national security council, told the RIA Novosti news
agency.
Ukraine officials
say their army is locked not only in a conflict with pro-Russian separatists,
but also with the Russian military. Unverified reports on Tuesday said that
Russian military forces had been spotted in two major rebel-held cities in
eastern Ukraine.
Putin has
denied that his forces are invading Ukraine.
jr/jm (AFP, AP)
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