Source: Reuters, Tanjug

WARSAW -- NATO can deploy its forces wherever it wants, new NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

According to a Reuters report, with the statement he "apparently called into question post-Cold War agreements that have been shaken by Russia's actions in Crimea and Ukraine."

Stoltenberg was visiting NATO member Poland to reassure it that NATO would provide the protection it sought against its former communist master, Russia, which in recent months has annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, and been accused by the West of sending troops and equipment to back pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, the British agency said, and added:

"At a summit a month ago, NATO leaders agreed to set up a rapid reaction force that could be sent to a hotspot within days, and to pre-position equipment and supplies in eastern European countries to receive the force if needed," but they "rejected appeals from NATO members in Eastern Europe, including Poland, to station thousands of troops there permanently - partly because of the expense, and partly because they did not want to break a 1997 pact under which NATO promised Russia it would not permanently station significant combat forces in the east."

Stoltenberg now "appeared to take a tougher line in Poland."

He said that NATO has "a strong" army and capabilities to deploy it "wherever we want to" - even before "the so-called spearhead" has been established.

NATO has made clear it will not intervene militarily in Ukraine, which is not an alliance member, but has reinforced the defenses of its eastern member states, Reuters wrote, and added that Russia has repeatedly denied sending forces or equipment to the rebels in eastern Ukraine.

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NATO can deploy troops "wherever it wants"