Future multilateral cooperation: Leveraging the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence Two Years on

Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 stimulated greater defence cooperation throughout the Baltic littoral. Concerns about Russian aggression have once again made deterrence and territorial defence a priority for NATO and member states located along the so-called northeastern flank. In July 2016 at the Warsaw Summit, NATO member states sought to adjust the Alliance’s force posture, building on the deterrence and assurance measures it had adopted two years prior at the Wales Summit by agreeing to deploy the enhanced Forward Presence (eFP). Since early 2017, the Allies have been implementing this initiative across the Baltic states and Poland, which consists of four multinational battalion-sized Battle Groups, to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, led respectively by the four Framework Nations of Great Britain, Canada, Germany, and the United States.