WARSAW, Poland (AP) – The Latest on the NATO summit (all times local):
11:50 a.m.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says Russia’s hostile actions in Ukraine have spurred the alliance to raise its defenses on the eastern flank.
Stoltenberg spoke to reporters before the NATO summit opened in Warsaw on Friday to approve, among others, the presence of four battalions in Poland and the Baltic states. These nations feel threatened after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and continues to back separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Stoltenbeg said: “No one was talking about reinforcing deterrence” before the aggressive action in Crimea.