After the meeting with Lieutenant General Valdemaras Rupšys, Chief of Defense of Lithuania; Lieutenant General Alfons Mais, Chief of the German Army, and Major General Ruprecht von Butler, Commander of Germany's 10th Panzer Division, the President underscored that the military exercise Schneller Degen was one of the most prominent examples of Lithuania’s successful military cooperation with Germany and NATO Allies.
“Collective operations of NATO – the strongest military Alliance in the world – are paramount for our national security today in ensuring the protection of Eastern borders of NATO and the EU. This is a security guarantee not only for Lithuania but for the entire Baltic region as well. The Schneller Degen and other military exercises held in Lithuania send a clear message to the regimes that aim to raise security challenges in this region. Germany and other Allies are committed and prepared to take action if Lithuania faces security threat,” Gitanas Nausėda, Commander-in-Chief of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, said.
It was the first time in Lithuania, when a division headquarters with the headquarters of its subordinate brigades were actually deployed to train to respond to hybrid and high-intensity threats. During the exercise, the troops rapidly redeployed headquarters and command elements into the NATO forward region in Lithuania and trained to cooperate effectively in the joint defensive operations.
