BRUSSELS: The NATO alliance is to build a headquarters for space operations at its airbase in Ramstein in Germany, to counter a rising Russian and Chinese threat, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.

As well as a US airbase, the German facility also houses NATO's Allied Air Command. "Space is of great importance for what we can do on the earth - communications, navigation, cell phones, military communications, transmission of data. And, and a lot of activities on the earth at sea and on land is dependent on capabilities in space, not least satellites," Stoltenberg said, after the first of two days of talks with allied defence ministers.