Vaidas Saljunas: NATO Prepares Response To Russia

The Kremlin has received very serious signals.

The largest military exercises “Trident Juncture” of the North Atlantic Alliance are held in the Baltic region. The Lithuanian military observer Vaidas Saljunas told Сharter97.org website how the exercises will affect the security of the region and Lithuania.

- What goals does NATO intend to realize with the help of one of the largest exercises of the Alliance forces, started in the late 80s of the last century?

- The main goal is to test how the implementation of Article 5 of the NATO Treaty will work in practice (collective defense means that an attack on one of the NATO members will be considered an attack on all NATO members - edit.).

Checking how the Allied forces will operate at the places existing in the reality, how large military formations with enormous military power will interact. The exercises were planned for several years, so it would be somewhat strained to argue that they are a response to the Russian military exercises "West-2017", but such associations can and will be present. Personally, I do not see anything wrong with that.

- Why do the exercises take place in the northern region, and not in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which are precisely exposed to the most serious military threat from Russia?

- Because, as I have already mentioned, they were planned several years ago in this very way, not some other. In the Baltic Sea region, other exercises are constantly being held, the North Atlantic region, Norway and especially Iceland are extremely important for the protection of Europe. Moreover, in fact, all the plans to defend this area have been in oblivion for years, and the activity of the Russian military is increasing.

- To sum up: what message does NATO transmit to Russia in this way?

- The North Atlantic Alliance is ready to protect its members. In order to achieve this goal, it intends to use all the means it has - for example, participating in these maneuvers of an aircraft carrier and airborne units. These are very serious signals for Russia.

- Maybe that is why the Russian military is engaged in the further militarization of the Kaliningrad region? There are again reports that new military bunkers are being built and old ones are being repaired.

- They do it all the time, we reported about it at least three years ago, when the Kaliningrad region underwent effective modernization according to the Russian military doctrine.

I’m talking about militarization and modernization, starting from the organizational level - the reform of the 11th army corps stationed in the Kaliningrad region, the deployment of Iskander missiles that can carry nuclear charges - which, by the way, have been repeatedly reported by the Russian military themselves, which proves the continuing militarization of the region.