Poland, Baltics urge EU to strengthen its eastern borders

BRUSSELS

Poland and the Baltic states urged the European Union this week to strengthen its eastern border, warning in a joint letter to Brussels of a "looming threat" from Russia and Belarus.

The four EU members are staunch allies of Ukraine, which has been fighting a fully-fledged Russian invasion for more than two years.

They are trenchant critics of Moscow, who they accuse of orchestrating hybrid attacks including "intimidation, instrumentalization of migrants, sabotage, disinformation, foreign information manipulation and interference, [and] cyber-attacks."

In their letter, seen by AFP on Thursday, the leaders of Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania urged the 27-nation EU to "spend more and coordinate on defence initiatives within the EU and with NATO."

"Building a defense infrastructure system along the EU external border with Russia and Belarus will address the dire and urgent need to secure the EU from military and hybrid threats," they said.

Poland and the Baltic states, which all have borders with Russia, have already begun fortifying their eastern borders.

Warsaw has earmarked more than 2.3 billion euros ($2.5 billion) for defense measures along the border.

The letter from the four, sent to coincide with the start of a two-day EU summit in Brussels, urged the bloc to support border protection "both politically and financially.”

They warned the EU was the target of "an unprecedented range of hybrid attacks perpetrated by Russia and its proxies," including its ally, Belarus.

Poland last month accused Russia of flying thousands of would-be asylum seekers to Moscow and then attempting to send them into the EU across its eastern borders.