The first soldiers of the German brigade arrived in Lithuania on Sunday, as NATO promised to strengthen its eastern flank amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The brigade command unit, consisting of about a hundred soldiers and military equipment, arrived by ferry from Kiel (Germany) to Klaipeda (Lithuania).
About 1,500 German soldiers are currently deployed in Lithuania as part of NATO's multinational battlegroup in the country, which was established in 2017.
Following the NATO summit in Madrid this year, Germany, which commands this group, promised to intensify its efforts.
At the summit, Atlantic bloc leaders pledged to “
deploy additional strong, combat-ready forces to our eastern flank, which will expand from existing battle groups to brigade-sized units when needed
.”
A brigade has about 4,000 men.
“
Our message to our allies here on the eastern flank is that we are committed to providing security there
,” brigade commander Christian Nawrat told reporters.
The brigade's command unit will remain in Lithuania permanently, while combat units will report for exercises, he said.
“
We will discuss in the coming week future training and exercises, we will most certainly consult quickly, and then we will deploy forces for these exercises
,” added Mr. Nawrat.
A senior German military official told AFP that the first exercises at battalion level could take place in October.
Arturas Radvilas, head of the Lithuanian land forces, said for his part that “
Germany's commitment is very important for (his) country
”.
“
We know it takes a lot of effort, a lot of preparatory work, but our goal is to work closely together
,” Radvila said.
“
We are ready to provide the necessary conditions for the deployment, the troops and the equipment
,” he added.
Lithuania also hosts a rotating American battalion, which was reinforced after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, as well as Hungarian and Czech fighter jets serving in the air policing mission.
In 2017, four battalion-level multinational battlegroups were deployed in Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland.
They are led by Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States respectively.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, NATO member countries decided to set up four new battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
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