To counter Russia… Germany opens new NATO maritime command center in Baltic
Germany on Monday opened a new NATO maritime command center in the Baltic Sea region to coordinate regional efforts against Russia.
In light of this, a German admiral is set to take over the command of the Command Task Force Baltic (CTF Baltic), made up of staffs from 11 NATO countries, in Rostock, one of the largest cities on Germany’s northeastern coast.
The center aims to coordinate maritime activities and provide NATO with a real-time footage of the situation in the region, according to the German military.
“The importance of the region has become even more apparent in the context of the ongoing Russian aggression,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius explained from the headquarters.
The purpose of this force, which is under German management and has NATO’s largest naval fleet in the Baltic Sea, is to defend the interests of the alliance countries against “hostile actions, especially given the region’s proximity to Russia,” according to Pistorius.
Among the participants in the Baltic Command Task Force are Finland and Sweden, which joined NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Germany often warns of the growing threat posed by Russia to its western neighbors.
In mid-October, a German intelligence official revealed that Moscow would likely be able to launch an attack on NATO in 2030.
“In Germany and in Europe, we see Russian aggression manifesting itself in many ways, such as cyber and hybrid threats that continue to blur the lines between peace and war,” said Boris Pistorius.
“That’s why we must make sure that Putin doesn’t get what he wants… We must defend ourselves and do our utmost to support our partners on NATO’s eastern flank,” he added.
The center employs 180 people, including representatives from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Britain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden.
In the same context, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock reiterated her accusations that Russia poses a hybrid threat to Germany and its neighbors.
“We have seen many examples of this, many times,” she said during a meeting in Berlin with her Nordic counterparts.
Baerbock stressed the importance of protecting key pipelines and submarine cables in the North and Baltic Seas, where ships shouldn’t be there are sailing.
Baerbock also recalled the drone that was recently spotted flying over an industrial area in northern Germany, in the Schleswig-Holstein region, for nine days, which prompted the authorities to open an investigation after they suspected it was a Russian reconnaissance plane.
Baerbock stressed that the drone wasn’t there to observe the beautiful local landscape, but because there is a chemical complex and a nuclear waste storage facility nearby.