Regional Security Alliance—Its Time has Come

Caught in the death throes of Russia’s historic unprovoked war against Ukraine with its concurrent threat against Europe, the ministers of defense and representatives of the Northern Group of European nations voiced their strong support for the establishment of a regional security alliance to fend off the real possibility of Russia’s invasion against them.

The government representatives meeting in Denmark reaffirmed on November 20 their steadfast support for Ukraine and their commitment to continue and develop Northern Europe’s military assistance to Ukraine and to strengthen industrial cooperation. The coalition includes representatives from the Baltic States, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Britain, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands.

According to their post-meeting statement, based on an assessment of Ukraine’s strategic challenges and current and future needs from the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov and Minister of Strategic Industries Herman Smetanin, the ministers presented and discussed ways to enhance the military support to Ukraine.

The ministers agreed to reinforce and advance the military support to Ukraine, including through the involvement of Northern European and Ukrainian defense industries. The participants noted that this will further bolster Ukraine’s industrial and technological capacities as well as the potential of European defense industry. Participants reaffirmed that Russia, as it has demonstrated in Ukraine, remains the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security.

Despite several false starts in the past decade, hopefully this effort will be finally successful. We have been advocating for the establishment of such a coalition since 2014, when we wrote about then Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin’s idea of creating what he called a Coalition of Freedom.

Outraged by the Russian invasion of his homeland, Klimkin proposed the Coalition of Freedom to defend democracy and Western values in a troubled world. “It is about security for everyone,” said Klimkin. He opined that Ukraine is confronting a threat any nation can face, adding “we need a network of security.”

Klimkin added: "We are in the process of the fight for freedom, for European values and for Western values and we will definitely pull it off."

In February of 2022 Russia fulfilled its destiny and everyone’s fears of invading Ukraine.

Then in 2023 we cheered when the presidents of Poland, Andrzej Duda, Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda, Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, convened a meeting in Lviv, on January 11, where they signed a joint statement of the presidents of the Lublin Triangle.

“The Presidents of Poland, Andrzej Duda, Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda, Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A joint statement of the presidents of the Lublin Triangle has been signed in Lviv today,” the Office of the President of Poland had said on Twitter.

This military, security and commercial agreement was certainly designed to safeguard the needs of the countries involved. The joint declaration signed by the presidents of Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland following the second summit of the Lublin Triangle supports holding the Global Peace Formula Summit, creating a special international tribunal to prosecute Russia, giving Ukraine EU and NATO membership prospects, and continuing security assistance to Ukrainians. The task and goal of helping Ukraine in its war with Russia was placed high on the list of the agreement’s mission.

Earlier, the three x-captive nations of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland announced the mobilization of the “Hetman Konstantyn Ostrohskiy” Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian Brigade (LITPOLUKR).

According to military media and the brigade’s website, this unit represents a new era of multilateral security cooperation in Europe. Lithuanian, Polish, and Ukrainian efforts to bolster European stability in the wake of Russia’s destabilizing invasion of Ukraine led to the creation of the unit in 2015.

The brigade’s website notes that each participating country contributes an infantry battalion, staff for the headquarters in Lublin, and specialized smaller units, to create a brigade between 3.5-4,000 soldiers.

One of the most vital contemporary security issues is the ongoing hostile global threat posed by Russia and its war against Ukraine. It has certainly boiled over from a two-country war to a significant regional war with the active participation of North Korea and arms supplier Iran. Some, among them Ukrainian Gen. Valery Zaluzhnyi, former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, have said that humanity is witnessing the start of World War Three.

At the Denmark summit last week, the ministers emphasized that there can be no peace talks without Ukraine’s participation and they agreed to follow up urgently at a meeting in Ukraine in early 2025. They also discussed the threats and challenges to the security of Eastern borders of the alliance.

While most of the free world displays varying degrees of support for Ukraine, especially in view of Donald Trump’s election victory as the next President of the United States of America, the countries of Eastern Europe, the former captive nations of the Russian prison nations, maintain a strong unified position about the individual and collective danger of living on the border with Russia. They understand that by reason of geography and Russia’s historical, insatiable imperial appetite they are in daily jeopardy.

Furthermore, these countries’ leaders use every occasion to tell the world that the fate that has befallen Ukraine awaits other countries across Eastern Europe and beyond, including the United States. The x-captive nations have urged the West to stand up to Russia’s aggression and not surrender to or else Europe could descend into a major war for the first time since the end of World War II in May 1945 as we are witnessing now.

A regional mini-NATO, this latest security coalition, an updated Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN), would noticeably promote and safeguard collective security against Russia.