BERLIN, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The NATO will improve the combat readiness by planning to build a new standby pool of some 30,000 soldiers, German newspaper Die Welt am Sonntag reported Saturday.
The troops, which is to be ready for use within 30 days, will be equipped, according to plan, with several hundred fighter jets and warships, the report was quoted as saying from high-ranking NATO diplomats.
The new Standby Pool will be built in addition to the existing NATO Response Force (NRF), which has around 20,000 troops at present.
The NATO defense ministers will discuss it next week in Brussels. Leaders of the bloc will then adopt a political declaration at their summit in mid-July.
According to the report, Germany will play a leading role in this new pool and the initiative for the new reserve pool went from Washington in recent months.
In the future, NATO will also want to improve military mobility in order to be able to transport heavy equipment like tanks faster to the place of deployment, which requires improvements in infrastructure and the removal of administrative hurdles and accelerated political decisions.
However, the report quoted NATO circles as saying that it is not only about better transport within Europe, but also between European and Transatlantic allies, such as America and Canada. The NATO defense ministers will also discuss this issue next week.
