US will protect 'every inch' of NATO territory, says Lloyd Austin

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, Friday, warned Russia that NATO would continue to protect "every inch of NATO territory".

Speaking in the Czech Republic he said: "I want to be clear that NATO does not seek confrontation with Russia or pose any threat to Russia. But our defensive alliance as it always has will protect every inch of the NATO territory."

Austin added that the US and NATO countries would continue to work to provide Ukraine with military equipment.

"We will continue to work together to provide Ukraine with the military equipment that it needs to defend itself. We'll continue to stand strong with our NATO allies and will continue to stand against Russia's assault on democracy, sovereignty and the rules based international order," he said.

Czech Minister of Defence Jana Cernochova, who held talks with Austin, said their 2 countries would increase collaboration on defence:

"Our goal is to upgrade the defensive collaboration between the US and our country to a higher level than ever before. We want to fill it with specific projects - we are negotiating a bilateral treaty on our defensive collaboration, the so called DCA," she said.