LONDON, August 28. /TASS/. The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), the UK-led coalition of ten northern European countries, can de-facto replace NATO in the region, Commander of the UK Royal Navy, General Gwyn Jenkins said.

"Because you don’t need consensus among all ten nations in JEF to act, it gives you a political flexibility to respond, particularly in crisis, earlier than we might see, for instance, NATO being able to mobilize with its higher bar of consensus being required for action," The Times quoted him as saying.

Jenkins emphasized that NATO leaders have welcomed deeper cooperation within JEF, "because they recognize that it gives them choice and options in the early stage of a crisis before NATO is fully mobilized." "So there’s an operational relevance to it," he added.

Established in 2014, the UK-led security coalition comprises Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Estonia.