{"id":551161,"date":"2025-11-05T17:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T17:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/551161\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T17:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T17:47:13","slug":"nato-downplays-us-troop-drawdown-as-russian-hybrid-attacks-intensify-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/551161\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO downplays US troop drawdown as Russian hybrid attacks intensify \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIn Europe and Romania, the American presence is more powerful than in 2020,\u201d echoed Romanian President Nicu\u0219or Dan, speaking from a vast marbled Union Hall in Bucharest\u2019s sprawling Cotroceni Palace. \u201cSo there is no concern, no worry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The comments come as the alliance faces escalating airspace violations and hybrid attacks. Russian drones have been intercepted and <a href=\"https:\/\/pro.politico.eu\/news\/204397\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shot down over Poland<\/a> in recent months while another Russian drone was tracked over Romania; drones of unknown origin have disrupted air traffic at airports in <a href=\"https:\/\/pro.politico.eu\/news\/205188\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Denmark<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cn4lj1yvgvgo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Norway<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/pro.politico.eu\/news\/205963\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Germany<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the incursions, NATO has agreed to deploy more warplanes and air defense systems to frontline countries in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/nato-to-bolster-eastern-flank-after-russian-drone-incursion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new program called \u201cEastern Sentry.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rutte suggested the new deployments could also help fill any gap left by U.S. withdrawals. \u201cWith this Eastern Sentry, we can bring more capabilities to bear wherever and whenever needed \u2026 also in Romania,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis military activity not only adds additional assets from allies, it also better connects the range of assets already available all along our eastern flank,\u201d Rutte added.<\/p>\n<p>The alliance is also currently <a href=\"https:\/\/english.mapn.ro\/cpresa\/6577_nato-conducts-%E2%80%9Cdacian-fall-2025%E2%80%9D-multinational-exercise-in-romania-and-bulgaria\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">carrying out beefed-up military exercises<\/a> in Romania, the NATO chief said. Allies are scaling up participating troops \u201cfrom 1,500 to over 5,000 troops so that we are able, whenever necessary, to immediately get all the troops in Romania needed,\u201d Rutte argued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIn Europe and Romania, the American presence is more powerful than in 2020,\u201d echoed Romanian President Nicu\u0219or Dan,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[2594,4328,18992,768,473,365,2595,1824,714,2992,2597,104313,36829,1115,8723,770,1438,332,657,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-551161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-air-defense","9":"tag-airports","10":"tag-airspace","11":"tag-borders","12":"tag-defense","13":"tag-denmark","14":"tag-drones","15":"tag-germany","16":"tag-joe-biden","17":"tag-mark-rutte","18":"tag-military","19":"tag-military-exercises","20":"tag-nicusor-dan","21":"tag-norway","22":"tag-pentagon","23":"tag-poland","24":"tag-romania","25":"tag-russia","26":"tag-ukraine","27":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115498349284240054","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}