Poland Working On Boosting Number Of Forces On Border With Russia's Kaliningrad - Minister

Poland is working toward increasing the number of the country's forces on the border with Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea, Polish National Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Thursday.

WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Poland is working toward increasing the number of the country's forces on the border with Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea, Polish National Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Thursday.

"It is important that the Polish military should be more numerous in the east of our country," Blaszczak said reviewing the country's tank-destroyer artillery regiment in the city of Suwalki situated in about 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) from the border with the Russian region of Kaliningrad.

He recalled that NATO forces were deployed not far from the so-called Suwalki gap, which, according to the military bloc, is the most vulnerable part of the bloc's borders and a potential target of Russia's alleged aggression.

"NATO forces are deployed not far from here. But we realize that we should create defensive capabilities ourselves. It is important for our military to be numerous, well-equipped with sophisticated weapons and closely integrated into NATO structures," Blaszczak stated.

Poland has been actively enhancing its cooperation with NATO recently in order to deter any possible aggression against the country, including alleged Russia's threat. Moscow has repeatedly stated it would never attack any NATO ally. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the Western military alliance is aware of this Russian stance but uses alleged Russian aggression as a pretext for boosting its military build-up near the Russian borders.