BRUSSELS – Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on Wednesday called on the European Union to set up a defense line along its borders with Russia and Belarus to protect the bloc from military threats from Moscow and other malign activity.
Calls for establishment of EU defense line on borders with Poland, the Baltic states, Russia and Belarus {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
The project to protect the 27-nation country's population of 450 million people would also require financial support from all member states, leaders of the four countries bordering Russia and Belarus said in a letter to the EU presidency to be discussed at a summit in Brussels starting Thursday.
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“The creation of a defense infrastructure system along the EU's external borders with Russia and Belarus would address the urgent and pressing need to protect the EU against military and hybrid threats,” the letter from the four leaders, seen by Reuters, said.
Hybrid threats refer to a combination of military and non-military, covert and overt means, including disinformation, cyber attacks, economic pressure and the forced return of migrants across borders.
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“The scale and cost of this joint undertaking requires special EU action to support it both politically and financially,” the letter said.
Some EU diplomats estimate the cost of building such a ground defense line along the EU's 700-kilometer border with Russia and Belarus at around 2.5 billion euros. As Russia's war in Ukraine enters its third year and Moscow steps up its hybrid operations against the West, European investment in defense and how to finance it will be one of the main topics on the agenda for EU leaders at the summit. The call to build a jointly funded ground defense line on the EU's eastern border comes in addition to efforts previously proposed by Greece and Poland to build an EU air defense system modeled on Israel's Iron Dome, which would coordinate the current individual air defense systems of EU countries.
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“The EU's external borders need to be protected and defended by military and civilian means and therefore special measures are necessary,” the four countries' letter said.
The letter states that planning and implementation of a defence line on the EU's eastern border should be coordinated with NATO and its military requirements.
This article has been generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
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