VALGA: The United States will stand with its European allies in the defense of the Baltic countries, the American commander of NATO’s land forces in Europe said on Tuesday as the alliance assigned an additional headquarters to the region.
“You’re ready to do more and following words with action, and the United States will be there alongside you,” US General Chris Donahue said at a ceremony in the Estonian town of Valga.
“That is how deterrence is built: Not with words from a podium, but with boots in the mud.”
Donahue, who will relinquish his post on Thursday, doubles as chief of the US Army in Europe and Africa.
NATO troops in the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and in northern Poland, have until now come under the command of a single multinational headquarters based in the northwestern Polish city of Szczecin.
