by Our Foreign Desk

US DEFENCE Secretary Ash Carter pledged yesterday to swamp Europe with military hardware to defend the continent against perceived security threats.

Mr Carter told a meeting of defence ministers from Germany, Norway and the Netherlands in Munster that Washington would provide intelligence and surveillance capabilities, special operations forces, logistics, transport aircraft and a range of weapons support that could include bombers, fighters and ship-based missiles.

These would, he said, protect Europe from the threat of Russia from the east and violent extremists from the south.

Germany, Norway and the Netherlands have already agreed to provide the initial troops for the so-called very high readiness task force announced last year at the Nato summit in Wales.

US officials said that there have been no final decisions on the number of troops that could participate or where they could come from, but they made clear, as did Mr Carter, that Washington would supply no ground forces.

Mr Carter said that the US was contributing aid “because the United States is deeply committed to the defence of Europe, as we have been for decades.”

He delivered a speech in Berlin earlier, calling for Germany and other Nato allies to stand together in the face of “Russian aggression” and other security threats.

His visit coincided with an EU announcement extending anti-Russian sanctions until next January.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that it was “deeply disappointed that, once again in the EU, the view of the Russophobic lobby has prevailed” in the extension of “illegal restrictions.”