NATO’s Eastern Members Seek Bases to Deter Russian Threat

NATO’s newer eastern members are pushing to have alliance forces stationed permanently in their nations, a move at odds with a 1997 understanding with Russia that limits NATO bases on Russia’s periphery.

Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma, speaking in Washington at a Bloomberg Government breakfast yesterday, said she’d like to see U.S. forces permanently based in her Baltic nation. Such a move, she said, would be justified in light of Russia’s recent actions. Leaders in Estonia, Romania and Poland, also NATO members, have voiced similar sentiments.