NATO agrees on Turkish air defence package

NATO envoys agreed the Turkish air defence package on Friday due to regional instability, Reuters has reported. The Secretary-General of the organisation, Jens Stoltenberg, told Reuters that NATO is to send aircraft and ships to Turkey to strengthen Ankara’s air defences on its border with Syria. He reiterated that this is just a “defensive measure.”

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“We have agreed on a package of assurance measures for Turkey in view of the volatile situation in the region,” Stoltenberg said. Diplomats said that the package is partly designed to avoid more shoot-downs of Russian aircraft.

The package will include NATO’s AWACS surveillance planes and what Stoltenberg described as “enhanced air policing, and increased naval presence including maritime patrol aircraft.” The ships will be provided by Germany and Denmark, which are exercising at the moment in the eastern Mediterranean.

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“This will give us a better situational awareness… more transparency, more predictability,” added the NATO official, “and that will contribute to stabilising the situation in the region and also calm tensions.”