“We greatly appreciate Croatia’s decision to contribute to the NATO eFP BG Lithuania again. It significantly boosts efforts of stability and deterrence in the eastern part of NATO,” said A. Anušauskas at the meeting.
Croatia has deployed troops to Lithuania twice before. Infantry companies were attached to the NATO eFP BG Lithuania in 2018 and 2020. According G. Grlić-Radman, a unit of the same size will be deployed in 2023 as well.
The battalion-sized NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group Lithuania was formed in 2017. Its framework nation Germany has the major part of military personnel in the unit and Belgium, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Norway are the current contributors.
Since the deployment, over 16 thousand troops from 9 NATO member states, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Croatia, Luxembourg and Iceland, have rotated though the NATO eFP BG.
A regular NATO eFP BG Lithuania rotation number to approx. 1.2 thousand military personnel, however, additional troops and military equipment have been sent in in response to the security situation changed by the Russian aggression in Ukraine this year and the rotation now includes approx. 1.6 thousand troops.
