“NATO Allies understand the challenges brought by the changed security environment, therefore key NATO’s priority is its readiness to timely respond to threats of any type and to ensure collective defence in the entire Alliance territory,” Minister of National Defence Raimundas Karoblis stated today at the NATO Defence Ministers meeting in Brussels. “Deployment of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence battalion near the Alliance’s eastern borders is not only a signal of allied solidarity and unity but also a real deterrent from a military point of view that enhances security of the region.”
The Minister underscored that Lithuania, as a responsible member of the Alliance, was prepared for burden sharing. “As it increases defence spending, Lithuania demonstrates that NATO defence cannot be boosted without an adequate input from every member, which includes the commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence.” R.Karoblis pointed out that Lithuania’s commitments encompass improvement of deployment conditions for NATO forces in Lithuania.
The Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Defence Ministers met to that end in Brussels today and signed a joint communique to facilitate movement of allied forces in the region and simplify related bureaucratic procedures concerning NATO enhanced Forward Presence troops deploying into the Baltic states and Poland. Poland will endorse a corresponding agreement tomorrow.
The NATO enhanced Forward Presence battalion battlegroup deployed in Lithuania on the basis of the decision taken at the NATO Summit in Warsaw last July in response to the changed geopolitical situation and Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Such battlegroups are also deployed as the beginning of the year in Estonia, Latvia, and Poland in order to step up NATO presence in the eastern flank of the Alliance.
Germany is the framework nation of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence battalion battlegroup in Lithuania The unit includes soldiers from Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Croatia, and France, 1,200 troops in total. At peacetime the battalion will train in exercises side by side with Lithuanian soldiers, or it will defend Lithuania alongside national and additionally deployed allied forces in case of a crisis or conflict.
