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| Europe |
| Poland Stages Major Maneuvers amid Russia Tensions |
| 2014-09-24 |
| [AnNahar] Poland kicks off major military exercises involving eight NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... partners on Wednesday amid the West's worst standoff with Russia since the end of the Cold War sparked by differences over the Ukraine crisis. Organized every two years since 2006, this year's Anaconda maneuvers involve 12,500 soldiers, with 750 from NATO members the U.S. and Britannia among others, the Polish defense ministry said, adding the event "has become a permanent training element of the North Atlantic alliance". The exercises are designed to coordinate cooperation with NATO's rapid reaction forces, created at the alliance's Cardiff summit earlier this month. They also come as the U.S. State Department approved this week the possible sale to Poland of air-to-surface missiles as part of plans to equip and upgrade Warsaw's fleet of F-16s. Poland has earmarked 33.6 billion euros ($43 billion) to upgrade its military equipment over 10 years, including acquiring a missile shield, armored personnel carriers, submarines and drones. Amid the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski proposed raising defense spending to 2.0 percent of GDP, from the current 1.95 percent. Poland, a former Soviet satellite state with a population of 38 million, joined NATO in 1999 a decade after shedding communism. It acceded to the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... in 2004. Russia's March annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and backing of pro-Russian separatists in that country's east has sparked deep misgivings in Poland and its Baltic NATO partners, also formerly under Moscow's thumb. U.S. President Barack Obama ...Dreams of My Sainted Father visited to the region in early September on the eve of a key NATO summit to offer security guarantees and calm nerves. While the alliance has agreed to create a rapid reaction force, it stopped short of stationing permanent boots on the ground in Poland and the Baltic states, a move demanded by their leaders but frowned upon by Moscow. Russia has long objected to NATO's expansion in its Soviet-era back yard and in 1997 NATO formally agreed not to install permanent bases in former Warsaw Pact states. But on Friday, Lithuania's Defense Minister Jonas Vytautas announced NATO will set up regional "command and control" centers in "four or five countries, namely Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Romania". Soldiers from Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania and The Netherlands will also take part in the Poland's Anaconda maneuvers that wind down in northern Poland on October 3. NATO will hold another set of exercises in Poland in October, also involving U.S. and British troops. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 Polish defence firms ready to sell arms to Ukraine – Polish minister NATO member Poland is ready to sell arms to Ukraine if there is demand, Polish Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said on Monday. “I confirm that the Polish defence industry is interested in this direction,” Siemoniak told private radio station Zet. “There are several products that may be interesting for Ukraine.” “If only there is a will and a readiness to purchase any elements of armaments in Poland, then Polish factories dream of nothing else but exports,” he also said. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2014-09-24 07:37 |
| #1 I'm told that the parade ground in Vincenza, Italy is really empty right now. About half in Poland (173rd Abn.) |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2014-09-24 07:31 |