Komorowski:'NATO needs new strategy'

President Bronislaw Komorowski at the NAtO Defence College, Rome, 30 October. Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk

“The phenomenon of the crisis on the eastern flank will be lasting,” said Komorowski, who is currently on a three-day official visit to Italy with First Lady Anna Komorowska.

The Polish president stated that “the full adaptation of the Alliance will have to be expressed in the development of a new strategic concept.”

Komorowski said the most important task “should be to increase the strength and cohesion of the Alliance.”

“Aggressors could be deterred for example by the presence of NATO forces on the territory of states that are on the boundary [of the NATO zone].

“We should prepare our armed forces for potentially negative scenarios [in the east],” he said.

Komorowski's comments come after Minister of Defence Tomasz Siemoniak confirmed this week that the government is planning to beef up its military presense in eastern Poland, with the first effects visible by 2017.

As far as a new NATO strategy is concerned, Komorowski said that “a good time” to lay the foundations for such a project would be during the 2016 NATO summit in Warsaw, followed by the adoption of the strategy in 2018.

Russian planes in European airspace

Meanwhile, NATO has detected a marked increase in Russian air force planes flying in European airspace this week.

“These sizeable Russian flights represent an unusual level of air activity over European airspace,” NATO noted in a statement.

It is alleged that the aircraft are not using their onboard transponders during the exercises.

“This poses a potential risk to civil aviation as civilian air traffic control cannot detect these aircraft or ensure there is no interference with civilian air traffic,” NATO stated. (nh)

Source: PAP