Poland said on Friday that it would recruit 35,000 volunteers for a militia within the next few years.
The voluntary members will receive a monthly payment of 127 dollars, according to Grzegorz Kwasniak, a Foreign Ministry official responsible for paramilitary groups, at a defence trade fair in Ostroda.
At an upcoming summit in Warsaw on July 8 and July 9, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is expected to decide on the deployment of battalions to Poland and the Baltic states.
The move will likely further antagonise Russia, which has previously said that the alliance’s eastward expansion threatened its national security.
Relations between NATO and Moscow have reached their worst point since the Cold War over Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine began.
Both sides have been flexing their military muscles in Eastern Europe ever since.
“A small group of paramilitary organisations will take part in NATO training exercises named `Anaconda in Poland’ in June,’’ the Polish Defence Ministry said. (dpa/NAN)
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