Brikvania Announces Defence Policy

King Brik II announced the Kingdom of Brikvania's defence policy during a visit to the Defence Ministry yesterday. Brikvania, he said, will pursue a neutral policy and will not join the Non-Aggression Royalists Treaty Organisation (NARTO), the regional defence community.

King Brik II emphasised the need to remain neutral, as the Kingdom has a small army. "NARTO has 80,000 troops inside our Kingdom. But by next month they will withdraw most of their military forces. As currently we have only 5,000 troops, neutrality is the best option," announced King Brik. "We do not want to antagonise Malatia," King Brik added.

The Kingdom of Lego has been pushing Brikvania to join the regional military alliance to counter the threats from Malatia. Sources said that Malatia has some 180,000 troops, much smaller than before the regional war commenced one year ago. Most of the Malatian army units have been totally destroyed during the recent regional war. 

The Brikvania Armed Forces (BvAF) is currently being expanded with the Kingdom of Lego's assistance. Currently there are 1,000 Legos military advisers in Brikvania, and this number will grow to 3,000 within the next one month. 

With a small defence budget of $2 billion Brick Dollars, the BvAF is looking at procuring the latest surface to air defence system produced by the Kingdom of Lego. The air defence system, known as Brick Regional Air Defence  II (BRAD-II), is reported to have a range of 250 km and effective engagement radius of 200 km. 

According to military sources, the BvAF is looking at having 12 infantry regiments to provide a credible deterrence against Malatia. However many analysts believe that the real threat to Brikvania is the large ethnic Malatians ethnic group residing in the eastern provinces of the Kingdom, who are unhappy with the secession of Brikvania from Malatia.

Meanwhile in Malatia, Field Marshal Nutyubrick announced a slew of military reforms to modernise the Malatian military. In his speech to Malatian military commanders at the Malatian Institute of Defence, Field Marshal Nutyubrick said that Malatia has been working on new tanks and warplanes, and while the Malatian army is small, it would be equipped with modern weapons and technology.