German Force commander General Major Josef Dieter Blotz (right) talks to a US military service personnel at the harbour in Bremerhaven, yesterday.
Germany: Hundreds of US tanks, trucks and other military equipment arrived by ship in Germany yesterday to be transported by rail and road to eastern Europe as part of a Nato buildup that has drawn Russia’s ire.
Two shiploads arrived in the northern port of Bremerhaven and a third was due in a few days, bringing the fleets of tracked and wheeled vehicles for use by around 4,000 US troops being deployed for exercises in Nato states near Russia. US and Polish forces will participate in a large “massing” exercise in Poland at the end of January as part of a series of measures aimed at reassuring US allies in Europe after Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine.
“The best way to maintain the peace is through preparation,” Major General Timothy McGuire told reporters when asked if the large deployment was meant to send a message to Russia. “This is just showing the strength and cohesion of the alliance and the US commitment to maintain the peace on the continent,” he said. Nato countries say their planned deployments to eastern Nato countries are purely defensive, but Russia has rebuked what it sees as an aggressive western buildup in eastern Europe.
In addition to US troops going to Poland, Nato members Germany, Canada and Britain are also sending battalions of up to 1,000 troops each to the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
