NATO has announced that four new multinational battle groups have reached their first level of combat readiness in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, reports BGNES news agency.

After the extraordinary NATO summit at the end of March, the Pact announced that it was creating four additional multinational battle groups in Eastern Europe. 2,100 troops from Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and the US are already in Slovakia. 800 troops from Croatia are deployed in Hungary, and 3,300 soldiers from France, Belgium, Italy and the US are in Romania.

• 900 NATO troops to be deployed in Bulgaria
• Bulgaria creates multinational NATO defense group
• Foreign Minister: Bulgaria has not requested enhanced NATO presence on its territory

So far, the Alliance has had permanent multinational units only in the Baltic states and Poland. Normally, the battlegroups amount to 1,000-1,200 troops, but their numbers have increased because of the war in Ukraine.