The Netherlands, Poland and Germany signed a declaration of intent to create a military corridor from the North Sea to NATO's eastern flank. This was announced by the acting Minister of Defense of the Netherlands, Kaisa Ollongren.

“We need a “military Schengen” to move military personnel and equipment faster and more efficiently. This will make Europe stronger. We have taken an important step: Poland, Germany and the Netherlands have signed a declaration in order to create a military corridor,” she wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

Reuters reported the signing of the declaration on January 30. It is noted that it is aimed at reducing bureaucratic delays that impede the rapid cross-border transfer of troops and weapons along the transport corridor leading from the North Sea to NATO’s eastern flank.

Reuters notes that in the event of a military conflict with Moscow, the United States and its NATO allies will have to send their forces through the North Sea ports, and then through Germany and Poland to the “eastern front.”

“Geography is what it is. This means that you need to be able to quickly move from the Netherlands through Germany to Poland,” the agency quotes Kaisa Ollongren as saying.

Old plans

Calls to create a so-called military Schengen in Europe, similar to the open border zone within the European Union, have been heard since 2017.

Then this proposal was made by Janine Hennis-Plasschaert, who held the post of head of the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands. In addition, the commander of the US Army in Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, advocated the creation of a “military Schengen”.

As Politico noted, U.S. officials complained that moving U.S. troops to Poland from Germany, for example, required five days' notice.

  • Loading American military equipment onto a ship

  • AP

  • © Bilal Hussein

In addition, differences in the level of infrastructure in different NATO countries also created serious problems: roads and bridges that could potentially not support the weight of heavy equipment, too low clearances of road tunnels, as well as small runways.

At the same time, NATO noted that bureaucratic red tape appears only during exercises in peacetime, and in the event of a real military danger, the Supreme Commander of NATO in Europe, based in Mons, Belgium, will simply warn the allies and deploy troops as necessary.

However, Janine Hennis-Plasschaert nevertheless called on NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Federica Mogherini, who was then head of EU diplomacy, to join in the work of removing these bureaucratic barriers.

At that time, no interstate agreements or decisions were adopted at the EU legislative level. The discussion of this topic in Europe returned after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine.

In November 2023, the head of NATO's Joint Sustainment and Logistics Command (JSEC), Lieutenant General Alexander Solfrank, reiterated concerns among alliance military planners that too much bureaucracy was hampering troop movements across Europe.

“We're running out of time. What we don’t have time to do in peacetime will not be ready in the event of a crisis or war,” the general said.

After this, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that such calls are escalating tension in Europe.

Peskov emphasized that the North Atlantic Alliance has always considered Russia a “conditional adversary,” and now openly defines Moscow as an “obvious adversary.”

“But this is nothing more than escalating tension in Europe, which has its consequences,” a Kremlin spokesman said at a briefing.

The Times newspaper reported on January 29 that NATO was allegedly already negotiating the creation of military corridors throughout Europe as part of the “military Schengen” system in accordance with Solfrank’s call.

According to the publication, decisions made as a result of these negotiations could be announced before the next NATO summit in July.

Let us recall that recently a number of high-ranking officials in European countries have made calls to prepare for a potential military confrontation with Russia.

However, Moscow has repeatedly stated that it does not need a war with NATO, and Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the Russian Federation is not interested in attacking any of the alliance members.

Theory and practice

Since the return of Crimea to Russia, European NATO members have tried to create conditions for a more convenient deployment of the alliance’s infrastructure near Russian borders, noted Vladimir Vinokurov, a professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, in an interview with RT.

  • NATO headquarters

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © Drbouz

“Now they are going to solve this problem by concluding similar agreements. But it’s one thing to declare it on paper, and another to implement it in practice. It has not been possible to implement these transport corridors until now, because the infrastructure of Eastern Europe is not designed for the heavy military equipment that exists in the West. This was once again confirmed by the recent story with Abrams tanks in Ukraine. In addition, there are known problems with the width of the railway gauge, which does not allow the rapid transfer of equipment across NATO countries,” the political scientist recalled.

These problems have not yet been resolved, as they require large financial costs, added Vladimir Vinokurov.

At the same time, when NATO talks about the need to create a transport corridor from the North Sea to the eastern flank of the alliance, it is understood that it is needed for faster advancement of US forces arriving in Europe, since other European armies can get to the east along other transport arteries, he explained analyst. 

“This corridor is being created in order to concentrate an army of about 300 thousand military personnel from NATO countries along the perimeter of the borders of the Russian Federation. This is the same “Anaconda loop” that was formulated by Brzezinski. All these transport corridors are aimed at containing Russia. Of course, we need to take into account the announced plans of the Netherlands, Germany and Poland and plan the allocation of the budget for defense needs ourselves, but this needs to be done calmly, measuredly and with confidence in our abilities,” said RT’s interlocutor.

Doctor of Political Sciences Mikhail Alexandrov also believes that implementing such a transport corridor will not be easy.

“It is necessary to settle all the details, describe how the troops will move, what documents are needed for this, how long before they will notify each other. This is not such a simple question. It’s one thing to declare it, and another to actually implement it,” the expert noted.

The movement of troops is regulated by mutual agreements between the two countries, as they control many aspects of logistics and payment for such movements, added Mikhail Alexandrov.

“This is a declarative action aimed at influencing Russia, scaring us with troops moving towards our border. But we are conducting a special operation in Ukraine, the army of which is larger than the pitiful Dutch troops,” the analyst noted.

Nevertheless, NATO will gradually increase its presence on the borders of the Russian Federation, for which we need to be prepared, Mikhail Alexandrov believes.

“Certainly, it is worth considering this as preparation for a potential collision. New NATO headquarters and battalion groups are being created, and brigades are being deployed. You need to be prepared for this. But the Russian Federation has already deployed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus so that the potential enemy would have no illusions,” the expert concluded.