Stoltenberg said NATO would agree to strengthen its defences at a key summit in Lithuania next week in order to protect all members, especially those which border Russia's ally Belarus.
"It's too early to make any final judgment about the consequences of the fact that Prigozhin has moved to Belarus and most likely also some of his forces will also be located to Belarus," Stoltenberg told reporters.
"What is absolutely clear is that we have sent a clear message to Moscow and to Minsk that NATO is there to protect every ally and every inch of NATO territory," he said after dinner with seven national leaders in The Hague.
"So no room for misunderstanding in Moscow or Minsk about our ability to defend allies against any potential threat, and that is regardless of what you think about the movement of the Wagner forces."
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda warned of the risk of Wagner fighters being based in Belarus.
"If Wagner deploys its serial killers in Belarus, all neighbouring countries face even greater danger of instability," he told the news conference.
Mercenary boss Prigozhin arrived in Belarus on Tuesday, after a dramatic weekend revolt by Wagner fighters that posed the biggest threat of Russian President Vladimir Putin's rule.
Prigozhin, a former Kremlin ally and catering contractor, built Russia's most powerful private army and recruited thousands of prisoners to fight in Ukraine.
Stoltenberg added that the West "must not underestimate Russia" despite the chaos at the weekend.
He said it was crucial to keep supporting Ukraine against Russia's invasion and that NATO allies would thrash out a path to Kyiv's membership of the alliance.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who hosted the dinner, rejected Putin's claims that the West wanted Russians to kill each other.
"I refute what Putin suggested yesterday that we in the West want Russia to descend into domestic chaos -- on the contrary, instability in Russia creates instability in Europe," he said.
Putin tells troops in Kremlin they 'de facto stopped civil war'
Moscow (AFP) June 27, 2023 -
Russian President Vladimir Putin told troops gathered Tuesday at the Kremlin they prevented civil war after a revolt by Wagner mercenaries, and held a minute's silence for pilots killed during the insurrection.
It was the latest in a series of addresses Putin has made after the rebellion, the most serious security threat in his more than two-decade rule.
"You de facto stopped civil war," Putin told troops from the defence ministry, National Guard, FSB security service and interior ministry.
He addressed them inside the Kremlin's Cathedral Square, standing on a red carpet and facing men in different uniforms.
Soldiers holding the Russian flag and bayonets stood behind the longtime leader.
"You proved your loyalty to the people of Russia and the military oath. You showed responsibility for the fate of the motherland and its future," he said.
He held a minute of silence for pilots killed in clashes with the mutineers, without revealing how many died.
"In the confrontation with rebels, our comrades-in-arms, pilots, were killed. They did not flinch and honourably fulfilled their orders and their military duty," Putin said.
He said Wagner mercenaries, whose columns were approaching Moscow before their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin called the mutiny off, did not win the support of the Russian people or its army.
"People who were drawn into the rebellion saw that the army and the people were not with them," Putin said.
Prigozhin had claimed the opposite and some people in the city of Rostov-on-Don that his mercenaries occupied during the mutiny cheered him, but it was not possible to gauge what kind of support Wagner had in towns its forces marched through.
Putin also said Moscow did not redeploy any soldier from Ukraine to counter rebelling Wagner forces inside Russia, as the Kremlin has insisted the revolt will not affect its offensive in Ukraine.
"We did not have to take combat units from the special military operation zone," Putin said.
"All military formations continued to wage a heroic fight at the front during that time."
Putin has not mentioned Prigozhin by name since his revolt, only referring to rebelling forces as "the mutineers".
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