Obama's first stop in Europe
Eastern approaches 2014-06-03
Summary:
ON A visit to Poland today, Barack Obama (pictured on the left), the American president, tried to reassure central Europeans rattled by Russia's aggression against Ukraine that the American commitment to NATO and to their security was “rock solid”. Speaking in Warsaw at the start of a European tour, Mr Obama said he would ask Congress for a billion dollars for troop rotations, training programmes and exercises aimed at increasing American military presence in Europe.
The initiative will dismay western Europeans worried about annoying Russia, but it still fell short of Poland's real goal, a permanent presence of alliance troops on its territory. “Words are not enough,” said Eugeniusz Smolar, a foreign policy expert. “Something very dramatic has happened: for the first time since the war a European border has been changed by force. Poland wants NATO troops here. They don't have to be American, but they do have to be from NATO.”
The idea of basing troops in central Europe causes alarm in much of western Europe. NATO promised Russia in 1997, during its eastward expansion, that it would not base any troops in the...Continue reading