The Chief of Defense Staff, General Claudio Graziano, attended the ceremony for the deployment of the fourth and last in Latvia Battle Group NATO multinational, which also takes part in Italy with about 160 military, established on the basis of the decision taken by the Heads of State and Government of the Alliance during the Warsaw Summit last July.
In fact, in the face of a deteriorated perception of security and following a specific request by the Baltic countries and Poland, NATO considered it appropriate to strengthen its presence on the eastern flank of the Euro-Atlantic area, launching a measure of enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) which includes the deployment of four battalions in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland respectively.
The President of the Republic of Latvia, the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, and the Ministers of Defense of Latvia and Canada, the country that took over the battalion, took part in the ceremony. Among the military authorities, in addition to General Graziano, there were the chiefs of staff and military representatives of all the 16 countries that joined the initiative, as well as the commander of the NATO Joint Force Command of Brunsumm, General Salvatore Farina, who is entrusted with the operational control of the four Battle Group. The Canadian-led battalion deployed in Latvia is the last to become operational, after the British under command in Estonia, the one in Lithuania with German leadership and the US in Poland.
The eFP constitutes a strengthening of the Alliance's principle of deterrence along the east flank and a clear demonstration of the determination to fulfill the primary mission of collective security in favor of Euro-Atlantic territorial integrity against all possible aggression and threats, as well as reaffirmation of cohesion and solidarity as NATO's core values and center of gravity. In this sense, General Graziano, during the press conference, stated that "Italy, as a responsible member of NATO, has decided to participate with its own military assets in the eFP, interpreting this measure as a concrete signal of solidarity towards of those Allies who, due to a series of contributing causes, perceive an increased threat near their borders ". “Moreover - continued the Chief of Staff of Defense - the eFP is one of those measures that NATO has launched in the face of the proliferation of security threats. These also include the initiatives for the strengthening of the southern flank, which concern us directly, such as the establishment of the Hub for the south and the launch of Operation 'Sea Guardian' in the Mediterranean ”.
The Italian Armed Forces take part in the Canadian-led multinational battalion in Latvia with an infantry company of the Trani "Bari" 9 regiment, equipped with modern means of transport and combat "Freccia", and some additional arrangements for logistical autonomy -operative, for a total of military 160.
