NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the commitments would be "a clear demonstration of our transatlantic bond." 'To prevent conflict'For the Kremlin, the U.S.-led alliance's plans are already too much given Russia's grievances at NATO's expansion eastwards. "This is a credible deterrence, not to provoke a conflict but to prevent conflict," he told reporters on Tuesday. The so-called Iskander-M cruise missiles can hit targets across Poland and the Baltics, although NATO officials declined to say if Russia had moved nuclear warheads to Kaliningrad. "This deployment, if it becomes permanent, if the presence of nuclear weapons were confirmed, would be a change in (Russia's) security posture," the United States' envoy to NATO, Douglas Lute, said.

Source: Egypt Independent October 26, 2016 08:25 UTC