In Rostock, one of the largest cities on Germany’s northeastern coast, a German admiral will manage the Command Task Force Baltic (CTF Baltic), composed of staffs from 11 NATO countries.
The goal of the center is to “coordinate marine activities” and provide NATO With a “real-time picture of the situation” in the region, according to the German army.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said from the headquarters of this command: “The importance of the region has become more clear in the context of the ongoing Russian aggression.”
The purpose of this force, which is under German management, which has NATO’s largest naval fleet in the Baltic Sea, is to defend the interests of the alliance countries in the face of “hostile actions, especially given the region’s proximity to Russia,” according to Pistorius.
Participants in the Baltic Command Task Force include Finland and Sweden, which joined NATO following the Russian military attack on Ukraine In February 2022.
Germany often warns of the growing threat it poses Russia On its neighbors to the west.
In mid-October, an official in… German intelligence Moscow will likely be able to launch an attack on NATO in 2030.
Pistorius stated: “In Germany and in Europe, we notice that Russian aggression is manifested in many ways, such as cyber and hybrid threats, which continue to blur the boundaries between peace and war.”
He added: “For this reason, we should be careful that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin does not get what he wants. We should defend ourselves and do our best to support our partners on the eastern flank of NATO.”
The center employs 180 people, including representatives from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Britain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock repeated her accusations that Russia poses a “hybrid threat” to Germany and its neighbors.
“We found many examples of this, many times,” the minister said during a meeting in Berlin with her counterparts from the Nordic countries.
Baerbock stressed the importance of protecting key pipelines and submarine cables in the North and Baltic Seas where ships “that shouldn’t be there” are sailing.
She also mentioned the drone that was recently spotted flying over an industrial area in the north Germanyin the Schleswig-Holstein region, for 9 days, which prompted the authorities to open an investigation after they suspected that it was a Russian reconnaissance plane.
The minister stressed that this drone “was not there to observe the magnificent local landscape, but rather because there is a chemical complex and a nuclear waste storage facility nearby.”