Saulius Gasiūnas, Director of the Euro-Atlantic Cooperation Department, Ministry of National Defence of Lithuania, reassures the members of the BA Committee that we are ready to intensify defence cooperation. "Russia, our potential enemy or opponent, treats us as a single military operational space. [...] If they are holding a large-scale exercise, such as Zapad, involving hundreds of thousands of units of military equipment, they are following a scenario against the three Baltic States altogether and even against a wider region, including Poland and other countries," says the representative of the Ministry of National Defence.
The speaker presented the latest defence initiatives and overviewed the current cooperation projects and NATO's role in the Baltic region. "We have to provide the best possible conditions for collective defence," Mr Gasiūnas says. He believes that we have to intensify the exercises involving practical tasks. The representative of the Ministry underlines the significance of the BALTBAT (Baltic Peacekeeping Battalion) project. BALTBAT would be the largest combat unit, acting as a driving force for the cooperation and coordination of the Baltic land forces. Mr Gasiūnas also mentioned the necessity to have a Non-Permanent Baltic Joint Staff Element, which is only about to be launched, the strengthened air-policing mission, and NATO's centres of excellence that had been established in all the three Baltic States.
The meeting was also attended by Marc Hendrickx, President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Benelux Parliament, Belgium; Joost Taverne, President of the Trans-border Cooperation Committee of the Benelux Parliament, Netherlands; Kristjan Prikk, Deputy Director for National Security and Defence Coordination Unit of the Government Office, Estonia; and Zurab Abashidze, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Chairman of the Georgian delegation to the GUAM PA, who expressed their opinions and shared the experience of their countries.
