Baltrėnas says NATO is strengthening defences too slowly

NATO is taking significant steps to prepare its defences, but progress is slightly too slow, Lieutenant General Remigijus Baltrėnas told LRT. He said universal conscription was a good idea, but would require developed infrastructure.

Baltrėnas, director general of NATO’s International Military Staff, was responding to an Atlantic Council study presented in Washington that said NATO could not currently deter Russia. He said the assessment depended on what kind of deterrence was being discussed.

In conventional and nuclear terms, he said, NATO deterrence was working. The alliance had not reached the threshold for invoking Article 5, he said, while Russian nuclear rhetoric was nothing new. He cited a threatening letter circulated in Brussels and signed by a low-level embassy employee as an example of that rhetoric.

Hybrid threats, including drones, attacks and migration, require a different response, Baltrėnas said. The first response and the decision to attribute a hostile act to Russia rest with the country concerned. He said NATO’s Article 4 consultation mechanism was a serious tool, but the threshold for using it had not yet been reached.

NATO is also coordinating between military and political representatives from its 32 member states, sharing intelligence and adjusting actions on the eastern flank, he said. Supreme Allied Commander Europe Alexus Grynkewich has planning tasks that include preparing different responses to hybrid actions.