Moving To Slovakia, US Troops And Military Vehicles To Hold Joint Military Exercises With NATO

JAKARTA - The first part of a planned contingent of 2,000 US troops and hundreds of vehicles entered the Czech Republic from Germany on Tuesday en route east to Slovakia for the NATO Saber Offensive military exercise, a witness said.

Coded 'Saber Strike', the exercise, which will be participated in by the seven Baltic countries, Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany, is routinely held every two years and is not linked to tensions on the Ukrainian border, the Slovak Ministry of Defense said, although the country borders Ukraine to the east.

It said around 2,000 US troops, with about 600 equipment, would take part in joint exercises with nearly 1,300 Slovak troops in the first two weeks of March.

The ministry further explained that the exercises in Slovakia will be held in the city of Zvolen, central Slovakia, which is more than 300 kilometers by road from the Ukrainian border.

After military exercises in the area, US troops will return to their bases in Germany.

It is known, Slovakia does not host foreign NATO troops. However, Foreign Minister Jaroslav Nad said on Tuesday it had begun to consider the possibility of deploying NATO units as part of efforts to strengthen NATO's eastern wing amid the Ukraine crisis.

As previously reported, meetings of Allied ministers on Wednesday and Thursday will decide whether to order their military commanders to draw up plans to deploy combat groups of about 1,000 troops each to Bulgaria and Romania, and possibly to Slovakia and Hungary.

"There will be tasks that allow us to increase, but also to reduce if Russia pulls back its military," said a senior NATO diplomat.

It stressed each new battle group would be different from recent allied bids by Britain, the United States, with other ships and aircraft to bolster NATO's eastern flank.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told reporters the ministers would discuss "additional upgrades" but declined to provide further details.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, "We will also consider long-term posture adjustments, including considering the battle group in Romania."