Former US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper says that The United States needs to deploy more troops on the Black Sea in Bulgaria and Romaniato deter potential aggression from Russiaas tensions between Moscow and Washington escalate, Reuters reports.
Esper, now a fellow at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University, said: “I think we must continue to oppose Russia and try to deter her bad behavior“.
Washington must seek to reassure European allies and boost NATO alliance through deployment of more forces in Poland, “in the Baltics, if it makes sense and places like Romania and Bulgaria, if not permanently – on a rotating basis,” Esper said.
Kathimerini: The West wants a friendly Bulgaria to watch Russia
With Bulgaria it can bypass the Bosphorus, political instability is undesirable
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President Joe Biden called on the Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to reduce tensioncaused by the accumulation of a Russian military line on the Ukrainian border, and proposed a summit of alienated leaders to deal with multiple disputes.
Russia took Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and fighting has escalated in recent weeks in eastern Ukraine, where government forces have fought Russian-backed separatists in a seven-year conflict that Kiev says has killed 14,000 people.
When he ruled the Pentagon last year, Esper advocated for such a changesince former President Donald Trump announced his intention to reduce the contingent of American troops in Germany by about a third, saying Berlin had benefited from the United States and was failing to meet its financial obligations to NATO.
In Tuesday The United States has announced that it will increase its forces in Germany against the background of the latter tension with Russia over Ukraineby abandoning Trump’s plan to withdraw about 12,000 of the 36,000 U.S. troops there.
