NATO members committed to defending every centimeter of territory of alliance: German chancellor

ANKARA

NATO members are committed to defending every centimeter of the alliance’s territory, Germany’s chancellor said Tuesday.

Olaf Scholz said Germany will scale up its contribution to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank.

“We will create a strong brigade, have discussed that with each other and will have to work on this,” Scholz said at a news conference alongside Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.

Scholz said Germany’s decision to allocate a €100 billion ($107.3 billion) “special fund” to modernize its armed forces will further strengthen NATO and make the country “the strongest armed forces in Europe and one of the strongest in NATO.”

He said EU countries and Germany will continue to support Ukraine as long as it is necessary.

“Germany is one of the main supporters of Ukraine in terms of military, and probably only the United States provides greater support than us,” said Scholz.

Nauseda said the leaders discussed Russia’s war on Ukraine and Europe’s response.

“We must build a strong response and strengthen our defenses in the face of Russian aggression,” said Nauseda, adding “we agreed on the need to reinforce defense capabilities in the Baltic states by increasing the number of deployed troops, strengthening air and sea defense.”

“I believe that no one is under any illusion about Russia now. We must realize that Russia's military threat is not going to go away. It will remain a long-term threat to the entire Euro-Atlantic area,” he added.