In neighboring Poland a newspaper report of last April provided details on the degree of the Alliance's buildup in the nation:
"NATO's investments in defense infrastructure in Poland may amount to over 1 euros (4.3 zlotys) billion over the next five years".
"Poland is already the site of the largest volume of NATO investment in the world.
"Currently, construction or modernization work on seven military airports, two seaports, five fuel bases as well as six strategic long-range radar bases is nearing completion. Air defense command post projects in Poznan, Warsaw and Bydgoszcz have already been given the go-ahead, as has a radio communication project in Wladyslawowo.
"New investments will include, among other things, the equipping of military airports in Powidz, Lask and Minsk Mazowiecki with new logistics and defense installations." [5]
The nation will soon host as many as 196 American Patriot interceptor missiles and 100 troops to man them as well as being a likely site for the deployment of American SM-3 anti-ballistic missile batteries.
As mentioned earlier, Washington and NATO have secured the indefinite use of seven military bases in Bulgaria and Romania, Russia's Black Sea neighbors, including the Bezmer and Graf Ignatievo airbases in Bulgaria and the Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase in Romania. [6]
Gen. Roger Brady, U.S. Air Forces in Europe commander, was in Romania on October 28 to oversee joint military trainings where "the U.S. Air Force flew about 100 sorties; half of those sorties were flown with the Romanian air force." [7]
The Pentagon leads annual NATO Sea Breeze exercises in Ukraine in the Crimea where the Russian Black Sea Fleet is based.
It also conducts regular Immediate Response military drills in Georgia, the largest to date ending days before Georgia's attack on South Ossetia and the resultant war with Russia in August of 2008 and one currently just being completed. This May the U.S. led the annual Cooperative Longbow 09/Cooperative Lancer NATO Partnership for Peace war games in Georgia with 1,300 servicemen from 19 countries. [8]
The Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe, General Carter F. Ham, was in Georgia a few days ago and "got acquainted with the carrying out of the Georgian-US military training Immediate Response 2009 ³ which included "visit[ing] the Vaziani Military Base and attend[ing] military training." [9]
A Russian official, Dmitry Rogozin, spoke of the joint military exercises, warning that "We all remember that similar activities carried out last year were followed by the August events." [10]
A Georgian commentary on the drills confirmed Russian apprehensions by reiterating this link:
"Georgia is fighting for peace and stability in Afghanistan in order to eventually ensure peace and stability in Georgia, as one good turn will undoubtedly deserve another in the fullness of time." [11]. Which is to say, as Georgia assists the U.S. militarily in Afghanistan, so the U.S. will back Georgia in any future conflicts with its neighbors in the Caucasus.
The world press has recently reported on Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski's three-day visit to the U.S. to among other things "meet with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton"to discuss Afghanistan and a new US proposal for a missile shield" [12] and attend a conference at the Brookings Institution where he said of the Polish-Swedish-European Union Eastern Partnership program to recruit Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine into the "Euro-Atlantic" orbit and of Moscow's concerns that the West was moving to take over former Soviet space, "The EU does not need Russia's consent." [13]
What created the most controversy, though, was his address at a conference sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) called The United States and Central Europe: Converging or Diverging Strategic Interests?
