It would be a brigade and its equipment to protect the eastern flank of NATO. Currently, Germany has 850 soldiers permanently deployed in that Baltic country.
The German Defense Minister, the Social Democrat Boris Pistorius, announced this Monday (06.26.2023) that Berlin will station 4,000 soldiers in Lithuania permanently -compared to the 850 who are currently in the country- to protect the eastern flank of NATO if the necessary infrastructures are created for it, something that is already being worked on.
‘Germany is ready to station a robust brigade in Lithuania permanently. The prerequisite we have discussed is that the infrastructures must exist: barracks, training grounds and warehouses,’ he said during a visit to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. This deployment must also be “compatible with NATO plans.”
“We are talking about a brigade of 4,000 soldiers, more equipment and, in the event of a permanent station, also their families,” added the minister, who said that the plan discussed with his Lithuanian colleague Arvydas Anusauskas involves increasing troops in parallel with the growth of the infrastructures. In addition to the 850 troops permanently stationed in Lithuania, Germany temporarily deployed another 650 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Reinforce” the eastern flank.
Following last year’s NATO summit in Madrid, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to send a German brigade for extended surveillance activities (eVA). The objective is for it to complement the multinational advanced reinforced presence (EFP) battle group under German command, which has already been deployed in the Baltic country since 2017.
In his appearance with Anusauskas, Pistorius stressed that until 1990 Germany was on the eastern flank of NATO and depended on its allies for its security and that, in the same way, Berlin must now assume its responsibility in defense of Poland and the Baltics. “Ultimately, we are talking about common freedom,” he said.
The NATO multinational battle group currently deployed in the Lithuanian town of Rukla (center) numbers some 1,600 troops, about half of whom are German. On Sunday, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that NATO must “strengthen” its eastern flank if Belarus takes in Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group.
AFP
