BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO allies agreed on Friday to send
aircraft and ships to Turkey to strengthen Ankara's air
defenses on its border with Syria, the alliance's chief said.
Diplomats said the package is partly designed to avoid more
shoot-downs of Russian planes.

Envoys to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization approved
the plan and must now decide what military assets to send
to Turkey, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told
Reuters, stressing that it was a defensive measure.
"We have agreed on a package of assurance measures for
Turkey in view of the volatile situation in the region,"
Stoltenberg said, although he avoided any reference to
Russia's military involvement in Syria and its air incursions.

Given that Turkey already has a formidable air force, NATO
diplomats and military experts say the alliance's
involvement is to minimize the risk of any repeat of Turkey's
Nov. 24 shooting down of a Russian warplane that flew into
Turkish airspace.

That was the first known incident of its kind since the Cold
War and the most serious of several air incursions since
early October, leaving relations between Turkey and Russia
at their lowest ebb in recent memory. Moscow has retaliated
with sanctions and called it a "hostile act".

Due to be assembled in the coming weeks, the package will
include NATO's AWACS surveillance planes and what
Stoltenberg described as "enhanced air policing, and
increased naval presence including maritime patrol aircraft."

The ships will be provided by Germany and Denmark, which
are exercising in the eastern Mediterranean.
AWACS monitor airspace within a radius of more than 400
km (250 miles) and exchange information via digital data
links, with ground-based, sea-based and airborne
commanders.

Asked if this was about managing Turkey's airspace with
more caution than Ankara has shown in the past,
Stoltenberg said: "This will give us a better situational
awareness ... more transparency, more predictability and
that will contribute to stabilizing the situation in the region
and also calm tensions," Stoltenberg said.

AWKWARD POSITION

Spain has also agreed to extend its Patriot surface-to-air
missiles along Turkey's border to shoot down any missiles
from Syria's conflict fired into Turkish territory. Germany
and the United States recently removed their batteries from
the area.

NATO diplomats worry Ankara is too aggressive and that
further incidents could escalate the situation after Russia
moved its modern S-400 air defense system into Syria that
can hit missiles and aircraft from up to 400 km.

It has also upgraded its strike aircraft with SU-34 fighters.
While NATO allies do not dispute Ankara's version of the
facts, they also are keen to engage Russia in talks to avoid
incidents that could flare from Moscow's aggressive
patrolling of alliance air borders around Turkey, the Baltic
states and the North Sea.

Diplomats said the United States and European allies are in
the awkward position of urging Ankara to do more against
Islamic State in Syria - including sealing a section of the
border crossed by fighters and oil smugglers - while
encouraging it to avoid further incidents with Russia and to
keep alive a peace process with the Kurds in southeastern
Turkey.

"We are concerned about the military build-up in the
region," Stoltenberg said, and said he hoped NATO could
repeat the same kind of air policing done in the Baltics,
"without incidents and accidents".

mazeltov:
Is Spain part of Nato too or just fnd?