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The United States is sending nearly 3,000 extra troops to Poland and Romania to bolster Eastern European defences.

"I think bolstering the Eastern flank from north to south is the top of the NATO agenda, no question about it, and one thing we have made very clear to the Russian side is that if they continue this course of escalation and if they choose to take the military path regarding Ukraine they're going to see more NATO capability on the Eastern flank," U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet said on Wednesday (February 9).

In Romania, the U.S. is relocating a Stryker squadron of U.S. service members from Vilseck, Germany.

The Romania's defence ministry said a part of the squadron, which will be named Task Force (TF) Cougar, will drive across the country to the Mihail Kogalniceanu military base in the eastern county of Constanta.

U.S. forces have used the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base on the Black Sea since 1999. Romania, a NATO member since 2004, also hosts a ballistic missile defense system.

The Stryker squadron, designed to deploy on short order, will add to the 900 soldiers the U.S. currently has rotating in Romania, some as part of the NATO force and some under separate bilateral arrangements.

France has also offered to be the lead nation of a future NATO mission in Romania, which could see about 1,000 troops from various countries, and a decision could be made at the next NATO defence ministers meeting in mid-February.