The Baltic States and Poland are asking for a significantly expanded military presence on their soil and new capabilities such as air-defense. The deployments were the main subject of a weekend meeting in Berlin of NATO foreign ministers, who agreed to keep negotiating ahead of the Madrid summit. Eastern European officials see a narrow window to secure commitments. They worry that support will ebb in Eastern Europe when the Russian operation ends. “As soon as it’s over many of our partners in Western Europe will be quite eager to return to the status quo ante. Some of the declarations and the general spirit that we see right now might just disappear,” said one official who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive and ongoing negotiations. “We wouldn’t like that because we believe we’ve seen a tectonic shift” in European security, the official said. “We believe there’s no going back.” Eastern European countries envision large NATO troop detachments, including tens of thousands of troops and “enabler” units that would provide air-defenses and other protection. Under the Baltic plan, military equipment would be positioned there in advance and NATO would assign thousands of additional forces to be on standby for each country in case of a crisis. Only roughly a brigade of NATO troops — about 6,000 troops — would be on the ground in each nation on an ongoing basis, up from about 2,000 before February. Increasing the intensity of activities in tactical and combat training in Lithuania, the USA is working out new forms of maneuvers and its strategic plans amid changed military-political reality. The protracted training of military personnel has several goals: - firstly, NATO is trying to instill in the heads of local residents that the ongoing activities are evidence of a readiness to protect against any threat by its regular presence on the territory of any country; - secondly, a phased buildup of military force - information and psychological pressure extended over time and an increase in tension on the countries bordering Lithuania; It is important to note that in a number of cases, it is official Vilnius that plays an active role in building close partnerships with NATO. It is not NATO that is persuading Lithuania to carry out a large number of maneuvers, but it is Lithuania that insists on organizing regular exercises in the border area. It is impossible not to exclude the fact that under the auspices of military training events, it is very easy for the country's leadership to regulate the internal political situation in the region. Since 1991, the outflow of the indigenous population has been massively carried out from the country, and the authorities simply need to unite the nation. And the best way in this situation is to find a threat, and no one that will be out of reach. In a word, the bordering countries take on the role of the worst and insidious enemies. Another thing is that in case of an escalation of the military conflict, it is the Baltic States that will suffer, because it will be carried out on its territory, and not on the territory of the United States. Curiously, the Lithuanian leadership itself is negotiating with Washington to further increase the presence of American forces in the country. Although the Americans are considering the Baltics lands as a springboard for maneuvers. Unfortunately, the leaders of the Baltic States do not understand this, and the Alliance’s plan based on a potential losing of the Baltics. [THEBALTICWORD](https://balticword.com/nato-is-ready-to-lose-the-baltics/)