US warns Russia over ‘destabilising’ Baltic arms build-up

The US will send more weaponry to defend allies in the Baltic states if Russia steps up its already "destabilising" actions in the region, Pentagon chief James Mattis said during a visit to Lithuania on Wednesday.

The US defence secretary reassured his counterparts from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania of Washington's support for Nato states in central Europe, which are still uneasy over president Donald Trump's attitude and alleged ties to Russia.

Lithuania wants to host a US Patriot missile battery, amid fears over Moscow's deployment of nuclear-capable Iskander rockets to Kaliningrad, a heavily militarised Russian exclave that sits between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic Sea.

Baltic leaders are particularly concerned about war games planned for September in areas of western Russia, Belarus and Kaliningrad, which could involve up to 100,000 Russian troops.

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“Any build-up of Russian combat power in an area where they know and we all know they are not threatened...is simply destabilising,” Gen Mattis said.

“We will deploy only defensive systems to make certain that sovereignty is respected. The specific systems that we bring are those that we determine necessary.”

Patriot missiles

Nato is deploying multi-national battalions to the three Baltic states and Poland to ease fears of aggression from Russia, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine and continues to arm and fund separatist militia in the east of the country.

Gen Mattis visited a German-led battalion in Lithuania, where in June Nato will hold air defence exercises that may involve the temporary deployment of Patriot missiles.

“The reason for the deployment you see right now is the lack of respect for international law by a nation in the region,” Gen Mattis said in reference to Russia.

When asked if Patriot missiles could be permanently stationed in Lithuania, he said: “So long as the nation shows respect, we would not have to deploy that.”

Gen Mattis was in Lithuania as Mr Trump prepared for talks in Washington with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. During his campaign, Mr Trump advocated a rapprochement with the Kremlin and called Nato "obsolete".

He has since spoken more supportively of Nato, however, and Gen Mattis insisted that the US had an “ironclad” commitment to an alliance that remained “indivisible in the face of any threat.”

Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite said her country could "trust" Gen Mattis, but hoped for more military hardware: "We need all necessary means for defence and for deterrence, and that's what we'll decide together".