By Sabine Siebold
BERLIN, May 28 (Reuters) - NATO will strengthen the defence of its eastern flank by tasking the German-Netherlands Corps with the command of allied troops in Estonia and Latvia in the event of a war with Russia, Germany and the Netherlands said on Thursday.
NATO forces in all three Baltic nations as well as northern Poland currently come under the command of a single multinational headquarters.
Creating a second command zone could allow the alliance to devote more troops to the Baltics, which are most at risk from a potential Russian attack.
NATO has said Moscow could mount a large-scale assault on allied territory as early as 2029, if its armament efforts persist, an intention the Kremlin denies.
The change announced on Thursday and reported by Reuters earlier this week underlines the strategic importance of the Baltics since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"With the integration of the German-Netherlands Corps into NATO's defence plans, both nations are assuming further responsibility for the security of Europe," German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said, adding the corps included 16 countries.
Pressure on Europe to increase its defences has mounted following criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump who accuses the bloc of not pulling its military weight.
NEW ROLE FROM MID-YEAR
When fully operational, an army corps typically commands three divisions, or 40,000 to 60,000 troops. In peacetime, it normally exists as a skeleton command structure, with specialist functions such as artillery, air defence and medics in place to allow rapid deployment of troops when needed.
The German-Netherlands Corps, based in the German town of Muenster, will assume the role of tactical headquarters for Estonia and Latvia around mid-year, the defence ministries of Germany and the Netherlands said in a statement.
The Multi-National Corps Northeast in Szczecin, Poland, with around 20 contributing nations, has been in charge of the entire region so far. It was set up in 2017, in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea.
A second corps in charge of Baltic defence would allow NATO to bring in "mass at speed," as one military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described it.
Near the Baltic border, Russia has started to ramp up military infrastructure, building new barracks in its Leningrad and Moscow military districts that are expected to house Russian troops returning from Ukraine, according to Western military officials.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, additional reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Linda Pasquini and Gus Trompiz)
