US 'extremely protective' of Baltic area
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
29.08.2017 11:34
The United States is “extremely protective” of the Baltic region where it has “great relationships”, US President Donald Trump has said, but he declined to single out Russia as a security threat.
US President Donald Trump. Photo: whitehouse.gov
Speaking during a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö at the White House on Monday, Trump said: “I consider many countries as a security threat, unfortunately, when you look at what’s going on in the world today... We consider [the Baltic region] a very, very important part of the world.”
Trump added that the US would be able to handle [security threats] “if we have to. Hopefully, we won’t have to handle them, but if we do, we will handle them”.
Russia is gearing up for Zapad 2017 war games in Belarus in September, in which, according to official figures, some 12,700 soldiers will take part.
Moscow plans on shipping some 3,000 soldiers out for the drills, but according to Polish media, enough wagons to take 100,000 soldiers will actually be transported to Belarus.
Meanwhile, Polish and US observers have voiced fears that Russia may not withdraw from Belarus after the military exercises come to an end.
Both NATO and the US have troops stationed in Poland and that Baltic states to act as a deterrent. (vb/pk)
Source: PAP