From NATO:   [W]e must develop an effective missile defence. In the coming years, we will probably face many more countries – and possibly even some non-state actors -- armed with long-range missiles and nuclear capabilities. Therefore, I believe that NATO’s deterrent posture should include missile defence. Deterrence works against rational actors, but not all actors that we will have to deal with in the future will be rational.  That’s why deterrence and defence need to go together.  And why we have the obligation to look into missile defence options. Excerpt from Speech by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at Strategic Concept Conference in Warsaw.  (photo: NATO)

From the Economist:  At a summit in Budapest on February 24th Visegrad showed signs of renewed life. The big shift is in Poland, where go-it-alone policies have given way to enthusiasm for working with the neighbours. Under the voting rules of the Nice treaty, in force until 2014, Visegrad countries have as many votes in the EU as France and Germany combined. Next year Hungary and Poland will each have six months in the EU’s rotating presidency. Eurocrats in Brussels like to portray the rotating presidency as largely redundant now there is a permanent European Council president. The Poles and Hungarians are working closely together to disprove this. Hungary wants a “Danube strategy” to divert EU money and attention to the river basin. Poland supports this, in return for Hungarian backing for more EU aid to countries such as Georgia, Moldova and Belarus...

From RIA Novosti:  NATO has announced it will hold military exercises involving fighter planes over the Baltic Sea this month, the first in a series of military drills to be held this year near the Russian border. The Baltic Region Training Event training mission will take place over the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and will involve French Mirage 2000C, Polish F-16, and Lithuanian L-39 Albatross fighters, along with U.S. aerial tankers. The exercises will demonstrate "NATO solidarity and commitment to its member countries in the Baltic region," a spokesman for the Allied Air Headquarters said. The military events will continue in June in northern Estonia, where up to 500 U.S. Marines and Estonian soldiers will be involved in a ten-day drills about a hundred km from the Russian border, Russia's Kommersant daily said on Thursday. 

From Itar-Tass: Latvia and Lithuania demand stricter arms trade rules in the European Union and NATO in order to prevent the selling of Mistral helicopter ships to Russia.

From Reuters: Poland is set to host a battery of U.S. Patriot missiles and the American troops to man it from the start of April, PAP news agency said Sunday. "The Defense Ministry expects the first stage of the stationing of a Patriot air-defense battery and a 100-man service team to get under way in the (northern) town of Morag at the turn of April," the agency said. The Patriots are part of a Polish-U.S. agreement signed last December to upgrade the NATO member's air defenses, following Washington's decision last September to scrap a Bush-era Missile Shield incorporating installations in Poland and the neighboring Czech Republic.

From the Economist: If American technology develops as expected, by 2018 the new shield would cover almost all of NATO’s European members against an Iranian attack—only a small part of Turkey would be exposed. That is a big change from the previous scheme, which was intended mainly to protect America from an intercontinental threat, leaving chunks of Europe unprotected. The new system poses even less of a threat to Russia’s nuclear arsenal (the Americans say neither ever did). The SM-3 interceptors now planned have a shorter range and fly less quickly than the rockets proposed by the Bush administration. Moreover, much of the system—the tracking radars and the Romania-based interceptors—will be deployed further south, unable to interfere with Russian missiles heading for America over the Arctic.

From Polskie Radio: Poland is lobbying to host the NATO Response Force (NRF) maneuvers on its territory. According to the daily Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland having the opportunity to host such military exercises would increase the country’s security. NATO maneuvers could be a response to the joint exercises of the Russian and Belorussian armies planned in the Kaliningrad region, neighbouring Poland, and a demonstration that the Alliance is ready to defend Poland’s territory in case of an eventual attack - although the ministry has not officially confirmed the claim. “The maneuvers could take place in the south or in the west as long as they do take place in Poland” says Defense Minister Bogdan Klich in the paper. (photo: Polskie Radio)