There is no direct threat from Russia to NATO countries, but we are vigilant – NATO Secretary General

On 23 January, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that he saw no direct or imminent threat from Russia to any NATO member state, though the Alliance has increased its vigilance to prevent an attack.

"...we don't see any direct or imminent threat against any NATO Ally. And therefore, we, of course, monitor closely what Russia does, we have increased our vigilance, our presence in the eastern part of the Alliance, but the whole idea of that is to prevent an attack on a NATO Ally," Stoltenberg stated during the signing of agreements on the purchase of about 220,000 rounds of artillery ammunition.

Stoltenberg recalled that in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, NATO members increased defence production, not only to provide additional military assistance to Kyiv, but also to strengthen their own defence capabilities.

The NATO Secretary General added that another task of the Alliance in the current war is to prevent escalation "by deploying more combat troops to the eastern part of the Alliance, by further increasing our defence investments, and also by exercising more".

"We will have the big exercise starting later this week, which will be the biggest exercise in decades for NATO, with 90,000 personnel participating," said Stoltenberg.

"We do all of this to ensure that we have the readiness, the preparedness and the forces in place to remove any room for miscalculation or misunderstanding in Moscow about our readiness to protect every inch of NATO territory. And as long as we do that, there will be no attack against the NATO territory," he concluded.

Earlier this month, Swedish Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Micael Bydén and Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oskar Bohlin said all citizens should be prepared for war.

In his turn, the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, called for a transformation of the Alliance's combat capability in an era of unpredictability in which "anything can happen.