MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) - A United States shift of defense priorities to NATO allies in Eastern Europe is a zero sum game and will come at the expense of US priorities elsewhere, said senior fellow at the Center For Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, Todd Harrison.
“It’s a zero sum game,” Harrison told RIA Novosti in an interview at the 2014 ComDef conference.
“So if we’re going to do more for Europe, it will come at the expense of other priorities,” he added.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has publicly announced plans to bolster NATO’s readiness forces along its eastern front with Russia. Discussions of troop presence and logistics will be discussed at the upcoming NATO summit in Wales, along with calls for increased contributions from alliance members. Additionally, the summit will address aid to non-aligned states.
Asked whether these plans would force an increase in US contributions to the alliance, Harrison said that “there will always be more asked of the US. Could we do more? We could, but it would come at the expense of something.”
“I think if we’re going to raise the priority of Europe, and Eastern Europe in particular and our NATO allies there, it’s a zero sum game,” Harrison added.
Following Crimea’s reunification with Russia in March 2014, NATO has been boosting its military presence close to Russia’s border. In particular, dispatching a number of warships to the Black Sea and reinforcing air patrolling missions in Baltic airspace.
In April, Washington sent four airborne units to Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to support its NATO allies amid the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly expressed concern over the increasing NATO military presence in neighboring states.
