MOSCOW, 10 February (BelTA) - The U.S. egocentric policy is aggravating the situation in the world. Poland and the Baltic are active facilitators of this policy, Chief of the Joint Staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Colonel General Anatoly Sidorov told a briefing for the press in Moscow on 10 February, BelTA has learned.
According to Anatoly Sidorov, the main sources of threats to the CSTO states are the increasing activity and widening geography of the activities of international terrorist and extremist organizations; collective and national military build-up by Western states and active expansion of the US military presence in Europe; growing scale of operations in cyberspace; anti-Russian rhetoric of the Ukrainian authorities; persistent high conflict potential in Syria and Afghanistan.
"In many ways, the international situation is aggravated by the egocentric policy of the United States of America, which positions itself as the sole guarantor of international security," said the chief of the CSTO Joint Staff. "This approach was actively promoted during the NATO summits in 2021 and was formalized in the decisions taken at the level of heads of state and heads of government of the NATO member countries.”
"The measures taken by the U.S. to contain the growing influence of Russia and China and to prevent their rapprochement continue to have a destabilizing effect on security in the world," Anatoly Sidorov emphasized. He recalled that the United States is constantly increasing defense spending: in 2022 it will be up by 3.7%.
“Poland continues to position itself as a sub-regional leader, actively supports the U.S. and promotes NATO interests on major world political platforms,” the chief of staff said. “As part of its national armed forces development plan Warsaw continues to build up forces (there are about 120,000 at the moment and they are to be increased up to 250,000 by 2025), builds up new formations in the immediate vicinity of the CSTO western border, carries out technical re-equipment as part of the modernization plan for the armed forces and also step up intelligence activities in the east. The military infrastructure of Poland and the Baltic states is being actively improved to expand the ability to accommodate and deploy NATO's troops. The modernization of six airfields in Poland and Latvia has already been completed, which together can accommodate up to 200 warplanes. The modernization of six more in Poland, Lithuania and Estonia is underway,” he said.
“Poland is turning into a storehouse for U.S. Armed Forces havy weapons, which allows for the deployment and uninterrupted supply of a mechanized division. Training centers and ranges are reconstructed to support the NATO military contingents. Poland and the Baltic countries prioritize expenditure on defense and security. All this is done under the pretext of an allegedly growing threat from Russia, and also from Belarus, which are regularly called as a source of military threats,” Anatoly Sidorov said.
