WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — President Donald Trump's new budget proposal for fiscal year 2018 enhances the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI), a program designed to ensure US responsiveness to global threats and protection of its NATO allies, according to the Defense Budget Overview.
"The [fiscal year] 2018 budget request of $4.8 billion for ERI provides near-term flexibility and responsiveness to the evolving concerns of US allies and partners in Europe and helps to increase the capability and readiness of US allies and partners," the budget overview revealed on Tuesday.
The proposed $4.8 billion is a significant boost compared to fiscal year 2017, when the US government allocated $3.4 billion for the ERI program.
The US government stated the program aims to reassure allies of the US commitment to their security and territorial integrity, and has been implemented in boosting military presence on NATO's borders with Russia.
Russia has stated the amassing of troops and equipment on its borders constitute provocative actions in violation of past agreements and can have a regional and global destabilizing effect.
