NATO Defense Ministers agreed to create a so-called military Schengen zone to ease military movements across Europe.
Yesterday, the defense ministers agreed the proposal at the meeting in Brussels, RIA Novosti cited with reference to the military diplomatic source.
The idea has been expressed by the senior United States Army commander in Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges. He said that allied troops and military equipment should move across Europe "as quickly as migrants do".
"We should have to meet all the EU road laws, respect sovereignty, but it is a surprisingly cumbersome process in several countries to get permissions to move troops, weapons, ammunition, even just regular convoys," Hodges said, adding that, for example, moving forces to Poland from Germany requires a five-day notice period.
This proposal was supported by a number of countries, including Lithuania, Estonia and the Netherlands.
The editor-in-chief of the newspaper 'Journalistic Truth', Vladislav Shurigin, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, explained that such a "military Schengen zone" has already existed for a long time, and not just de facto, but also de jure, in the form of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which was signed in 1990.
"That's why there is nothing new for us here. These are internal European affairs," the expert said.
A military observer of the TASS news agency, retired Colonel Viktor Litovkin,agreed that this agreement will not create any new threats for Russia.
"The only thing is that it gives the NATO strategists greater mobility. Now, in order to transfer the battalion from one country to another, they have to undergo all sorts of border and customs procedures. Now it will not be necessary," he explained.
On the other hand, according to the expert, the mobility of NATO-member countries will not radically increase, as the alliance does not have enough vehicles to transfer such a large amount of equipment that may be needed if they start fighting against Russia.
Victor Litovkin specified that by doing this NATO pursues only one goal - to show that they are ready to fight with Russia on an equal footing. "Moreover, Russia is able to move its troops on its territory much faster than the alliance does. For example, Russia has concentrated its grouping to start military operations against ISIS in Syria in 3-4 weeks. The US needed 6 months to collect troops in the Gulf countries for the 2003 Iraq operation," the military observer of TASS stressed.
