Wow…that’s big news for NATO:

The U.S.-led NATO alliance will detail plans for its enhanced presence in the Baltics and Poland, where a battalion of U.S. Army cavalrymen will be among the forces deploying to NATO’s eastern flank early next year.

“This is credible deterrence,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday. “Concrete proof that NATO can and will deploy thousands of forces to support our allies. And a clear demonstration of our transatlantic bond.”

The moves, to be discussed at a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels that opens on Wednesday, come as the Norwegian parliament approved a plan to maintain a steady rotational presence of about 300 Marines near that country’s border with Russia.