Paris: Tuesday, Latvia and Lithuania urged NATO to fortify its eastern borders in response to predictions that Russia's Wagner private will establish a new base in Belarus following its unsuccessful uprising at home.
According to a deal negotiated by President Alexander Lukashenko, the mercenaries' mutiny in Russia on Saturday was put an end. Wagner's boss Yevgeny Prigozhin arrived in Belarus on Tuesday. The option of moving there would be presented to Wagner's fighters, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"This action requires evaluation from a different security perspective. During a trip to Paris with Baltic counterparts, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics told reporters, "We have seen the capabilities of those mercenaries.
Wagner drove hundreds of kilometres in a single day race towards the capital, according to Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, demonstrating how quickly the defence of the Baltic states needs to be strengthened.
They could take 8 to 10 hours to appear somewhere in Belarus close to Lithuania because our countries' borders are just hundreds of kilometres away from the activity, according to Landsbergis. "It is making our region's environment more volatile and unpredictable."
He declared, "We must treat the defence of the Baltic region very seriously. The NATO summit that will take place in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius next month coincides with the Baltic envoys' trip to France.
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The arrival of Wagner in Belarus should be viewed "in light of the NATO summit and all discussions that we are having about defence, deterrence and the necessary decisions to strengthen the security of the eastern flank," according to Latvia's Rinkevics.
NATO members Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland are bordered by Belarus. Germany declared on Monday that it was prepared to station an army brigade with 4,000 soldiers in Lithuania permanently. Paris could assist with air defences, Landsbergis told his French counterpart.
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France "can be a valuable partner in enhancing Baltic countries' air defence capabilities," he said. We are aware of French technology, and we could employ it as a component of our deterrence strategy to ensure that neither the Russian military nor Wagner would ever consider crossing into the borders of the Baltic States.
