Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP / Getty Images
By: EFE Updated 07 Sea 2022, 8: 53 am EST
The Secretary of State of the United States, Anthony Blinken, left this Monday in Lithuania in response to fears in that country in the face of a possible Russian aggression and insisted that it will defend itself “every inch of NATO territory”, referring to a phrase by US President Joe Biden.
“President Biden has already said, we will defend every inch of NATO territory,” Blinken said in Vilnius at a joint press conference with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landbergis.
Previously, the Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nausedas, had expressed his fear to the US and the other NATO partners. that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not stop in Ukraine.
“ Putin will not stop in Ukraine. Helping Ukraine with all the resources we have is a matter of our security as a nation. When I say that with all the resources, I mean all of them if we want to avoid a third world war. The decision is in our hands”, said Nausedas before receiving Blinken.
Blinken visits Lithuania and Latvia this Monday, two of the three former Soviet republics – the third in Estonia – that currently belong to the NATO. On Tuesday he will travel to Tallinn, the Estonian capital.
The three Baltic countries are concerned about Russian aggression against Ukraine. All three have a border with Russia and Latvia also with Belarus, a country considered to be an ally of Putin’s Russia.
On the other hand, Blinken highlighted in his appearance the effect that the sanctions are having on Russia.
“The ruble plummets, the Russian debt rating deteriorates. We are doing what we had announced months ago in case of an aggression against Ukraine”, he pointed out.
Likewise, Blinken highlighted the courage of those in Russia who oppose the aggression against Ukraine and recalled how more than 4 had been arrested on Sunday people for participating in protests.
Blinken, moreover, He recalled that NATO is reinforcing the eastern flank to, as he said, “respond to any threat.”
” We are reinforcing the common defense to be ready to respond to any threat. We have deployed 7,000 additional forces in Europe to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank” , he said.
“This includes the extension, last week, of the armored battalion 366 who was deployed to Lithuania last month of July, the deployment of strike fighters F53 to increase the mission of NATO air surveillance and 400 additional troops from the battle group of the 1st armored brigade that will arrive at the country in the next few days”, he added.
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