Baku-APA. NATO air forces commander General Frank Gorenc Thursday visited the tactical airbase in Malbork, northern Poland, to inspect the Baltic Air Policing operations currently being carried out from the base by Poland and France, APA reports qoting Xinhua.
Gorenc was shown round the base and spoke with its commanders as well as Polish and French pilots flying the Air Policing patrols.
Gorenc commended the organization of the patrols and especially the cooperation between Polish and French flight teams, which in his opinion was helping de-escalate the tension caused by the crisis in Ukraine.
Gorenc said that the NATO Baltic Air Policing project was aimed to protect the Alliance's Baltic members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and claimed that, in this context, the number of planes flying the patrols had been raised from 4 to nearly 20. The general stressed that the reinforcement of the patrols was a defensive move aimed at de-escalation.
"We wanted to show that we're together, that collective defense is NATO's backbone and that it works", general Gorenc declared.
Gorenc, who also serves as commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe in Ramstein, Germany, also spoke with Polish Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak in Warsaw, discussing the presence of NATO forces in Poland, joint military exercises, the modernization of the Polish army, NATO's position towards the Ukraine crisis, and Polish-U.S. cooperation in air and missile defense.
Siemoniak assured Gorenc that Poland was open to such cooperation and prepared to erect and maintain related infrastructure.
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