16.03.2020, Washington.
NATO may cancel the Defender Europe 2020 military exercises in Eastern Europe, suggests the US European Command (EUCOM) press release on March 16.
“As of March 13, all movement of personnel and equipment from the US to Europe has ceased,” stated EUCOM in a press release.
All other exercises linked to the Defender of Europe 2020 will be curtailed.
Cancelation of Defender Europe 2020 military exercises is possible due to an extremely high spread of coronavirus infection in the EU and the US.
“The health, safety and readiness of our military, civilians, and family members is our primary concern. We take the coronavirus outbreak seriously and are confident that by making this important decision we’ll continue to do our part to prevent the further spread,” said EUCOM in a press release.
Military drills to test large scale deployment of troops and equipment began in late February 2020. As part of the exercises, the cargo ships with military equipment on board arrived at the ports of Germany and the Netherlands, but never were unloaded.
In addition to practicing massive troop deployment, NATO countries main declared task is blocking of the so-called Suwalki corridor, a 100-kilometers wide land border between the Kaliningrad region of Russia and Belarus. According to NATO generals, the corridor runs along the border between Poland and Lithuania and is the main threat to being a cut-off point between the Baltic countries and the rest of Europe. The exercise drills planned the large-scale airborne landing with further corridor retention until the following deployment of the main forces.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
