You're reading: NATO countries to continue to patrol Baltic skies despite differences over refugees distribution

RIGA - There is no signal that NATO countries could reduce their contribution in collective security measures because of their different approaches to the refugee problem, said General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

Commenting on the view by some officials that certain NATO members might choose to reduce their effort to provide security for Latvia should it refuse to take in more refugees, Bradshaw told reporters that NATO members will continue their missions of patrolling the Baltic airspace.

Everyone values the importance of this mission regardless of how we resolve the refugee crisis, which is a different issue altogether, he said, adding that he saw no signal that NATO could reduce the number of aircraft taking part in the NATO mission of patrolling the Baltic airspace.

It was reported earlier that the scale of the NATO air patrol mission in the Baltic States had been reduced because more than half of the fighter jets assigned to the mission had stood unused over the past half a year.

Since Crimea joined Russia, the mission has been reinforced, with allies sending 16 more fighter jets in the past year: eight to Lithuania, four to Estonia and four to Poland. As of September, only four fighters remained in Lithuania and four in Estonia.

Lithuanian has agreed to accept a total of 776 refugees. Next week EU justice and interior ministers will be discussing the acceptance of another 120,000 refugees. However, Latvian officials repeatedly expressed their opposition to the compulsory mechanism of distribution of forced migrants.