NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance is likely to expand new battle groups in its member countries of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia amid growing concern about Russia’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine.

Photo by STEPHANIE LECOCQ / PAP/EPA

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said NATO leaders had decided to establish multinational battlegroups on the alliance's eastern flank. He added that one of the battlegroups would be in Hungary and led by Hungarian officers. Five other NATO countries have signaled that they will join the Hungarian battlegroup: the United States, Turkey, Croatia, Montenegro and Italy, Szijjártó said.