Baku-APA. NATO's 28 leaders at their Wales Summit on Friday agreed on a Readiness Action Plan to strengthen the bloc's collective defense and to ensure the alliance is ready to deal with any challenge, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
"This is a demonstration of our solidarity and our resolve," Rasmussen said.
NATO is facing a more unpredictable security environment than ever, as the conflict in Ukraine is still raging, violent extremists are rising in the Middle East, as well as the instability in North Africa, he told a press conference on the second day of the NATO summit in Newport, southeast Wales of Britain.
He said the Readiness Action Plan would make NATO more ready and connected, and aim to address dramatically changed security environment in Europe.
NATO leaders at their meeting agreed to maintain a "continuous presence" and activity in the air, on land and at sea in the eastern part of the Alliance, on a rotational basis, the NATO chief said.
"In these turbulent times NATO must be prepared to undertake the full range of missions and to defend Allies against the full range of threats," he added.
They also agreed to create a spearhead unit within the NATO Response Force which would be a very high readiness force able to deploy at very short notice.
"This spearhead will include several thousand land troops ready to deploy within a few days with air, sea and Special Forces support," Rasmussen said.
In addition, the chief said, to enhance reinforcements, NATO plans to set up an appropriate command and control presence, reception facilities and will pre-position equipment, supplies and planners. It will also share intelligence, upgrade defence plans and hold more short-notice exercises.
He warned: "NATO protects all Allies, at all times. And it sends a clear message to any potential aggressor: should you even think of attacking one ally, you will be facing the whole alliance."
Leaders of NATO member states welcomed a package of measures to make sure that the Alliance remains robust and ready, which including enhancing cyber defence, cooperation with partners, launching a Defence Capacity Building Initiative to help the Alliance project stability without deploying large combat forces.
He stressed that cyber defense is part of NATO's core task of collective defence, which suggests that a large-scale cyber attack on one NATO member would be considered an attack on the whole alliance.
He added that Georgia, Jordan and Moldova are expected to join in the Defence Capacity Building Initiative following their requests.
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