German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has assured Lithuania of further military support from Germany at the start of his first visit to the country.
decision on a permanent deployment of a German brigade to Lithuania will be “up to NATO”, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Tuesday in response to calls by Vilnius for a larger NATO presence in the country.
“This not down to who wants what – or who wants to provide what – but rather up to NATO,” Pistorius told reporters as he visited drills of hundreds of German troops at Pabrade training ground in Lithuania.
Since 2017, Germany has led an international battalion with some 1,500 troops in Lithuania as part of a NATO effort to deter Russia from attacking the Baltic region, seen as one of the weakest spots in the alliance’s eastern flank.
Berlin also has a brigade of some 3,000 to 5,000 troops on standby in Germany with the ability to deploy to Lithuania within 10 days if needed.
But the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been calling for bigger and permanent NATO deployments to defend their territories
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