The reinforcement of the eastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance continues. The German Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius, took advantage of his visit to the Pabrade training camp yesterday, less than 20 kilometers from the border between Lithuania and Belarus, to announce the next permanent deployment of a brigade equipped with 4,000 soldiers in the Baltic country.
“Germany was the eastern flank of NATO territory until the end of the Warsaw Pact. We were always able to count and rely on the will of our allies to protect our security and our freedom,” recalled Pistorius in a press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda, who has been asking Berlin for a decision along these lines for months. “As the first European economy and member of NATO we are ready to assume responsibilities on the new eastern flank” and “deploy a robust brigade in Lithuania on a permanent basis”, he announced.
Pistorius assured that the decision is not related to the deterioration of security in recent days in Russia and Belarus, but so far the German Government has remained firm in its commitment to the force model agreed a year ago at the summit of NATO in Madrid. Chancellor Olaf Scholz then announced that his army would reserve a brigade of 5,000 troops, partially deployable within 10 days, which these days is exercising in Lithuania. Berlin has cooperated closely with Vilnius in the military field since 2017, when it assumed leadership of one of the eight multinational brigades deployed by NATO on its eastern border since 2014.
The main condition of the German Government is that the Lithuanian armed forces are able to offer “adequate infrastructure” to their soldiers; specifically: barracks, training grounds and storage premises, a requirement that the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense does not seem to have many problems to fulfill in view of the constant expansion of its military infrastructure in recent years. This commitment has been further strengthened with the agreement for the German air force to protect the Lithuanian capital during the leaders’ summit on 11 and 12 July.
The goal of the Lithuanian government is for the new military facilities to house German soldiers to be ready by 2026. “I wouldn’t mind if the defense minister told me it would be ready in 2025,” Nauseda said with a laugh to Arvydas Anusauskas, sitting in the front row of the press conference. For Lithuania, a country of 2.8 million inhabitants and with an armed force that currently stands at around 20,000, the German announcement represents a numerical reinforcement of its defense capabilities of 25%. The small Baltic republic feels particularly vulnerable to share a border with Belarus and Russia, in this case through the enclave of Kaliningrad and, although grateful for the strong deployment of NATO in recent years on its eastern flank, where has about 40,000 forces, has always argued that the rapid deployment model is not enough to meet the challenges it faces.
“We are the first line of defense of the Alliance. Our border is NATO’s border, Russia is waging a bloody war on our doorstep” and cooperation with Belarus “may have security implications for Lithuania and the entire region”, President Nausedas noted in allusion to the alleged agreement between the Kremlin and Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenary group Wagner, to end his attempted rebellion and withdraw to the neighboring country, which has also agreed to the deployment of weapons Russian tactical nukes.
“It is a foolish and irresponsible decision”, but “we do not see any indication that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons”, said the Allied Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, who asked Belarus to stop supporting the Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. The Alliance, he added, is closely following both the evolution of events in Belarus and Russia. “What we have seen in Russia in recent days demonstrates the fragility of the Russian regime” and “how difficult and dangerous it is for President Putin to rely on mercenaries”, but “we should not make the mistake of underestimating the Russians”, he alert
