The main objective of the alliance is to always be ready, Bauer added.
Bauer also said that NATO has no troops in Ukraine and does not plan to send any. He said any member state mulling deploying troops in Ukraine should realize that it will concern the rest of the alliance, in an apparent reference to France.
Following a Paris-hosted conference on Ukraine in late February, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Western leaders had discussed the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine and, although no consensus had been reached in this regard, nothing could be ruled out. Other EU countries rushed to dismiss such plans. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that NATO had no intention of sending its troops to Ukraine.
A deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine would make a direct conflict between the alliance and Russia inevitable, the Kremlin said in response to Macron's remarks.