Russia’s neighbors want more security: will Lithuania get what it wants from its allies?
NATO leaders in 30 countries will meet in Madrid on 29-30 June.
The meeting will adopt a new Strategic Concept, outlining the security challenges facing the Alliance and setting out the political and military challenges that NATO will pursue to address them.
Our country, in turn, expects greater security guarantees. First of all – more allied troops in Lithuania.
It is hoped that the battle group of the NATO Front Forces Battalion, led by Germany, deployed from 2017, will increase to a brigade-sized military unit.
Battlegroups the size of a NATO Multinational Frontal Forces battalion in the Baltics and Poland were deployed in response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014, which had a negative impact on the region’s stability and security at the Alliance’s borders.
In peacetime, the NATO Front Forces Battalion is participating in exercises with Lithuanian soldiers, and in the event of a crisis or conflict, will defend the country together with our national and additional allied forces.
Photo by Irmantas Gelūnas / BNS / Commemoration of Lithuania’s accession to NATO took place in Lukiškės Square
Some politicians make no secret of the uncertainties behind the scenes about the Alliance’s greater security guarantees for us and other countries in the region.
Not everyone in the West is in a hurry to agree.
The reasons are sometimes prosaic.
For example, it is unofficially stated that if the United Kingdom, which is leading the NATO Allied Battalion in Estonia, could send more troops, then Canada, which is leading the battalion in Latvia, will have a jacket with additional capabilities.
It is being considered that if the Allied Battalion in Lithuania were to be increased to a brigade, German troops might be able to rotate.
In addition, as mentioned, some of the decisions made in the West do not hide the desire to see the situation in Ukraine after the war.
More clarity on this should be found in the future, when the defense ministers of the member states coordinate everything before the NATO summit.
“We want the NATO battalion to grow into a brigade. We then want to supply the logistics and parts already installed to accommodate a unit the size of a division. And air defense is vital to transforming an air policing mission into an air defense mission.
There are good elements in those discussions in NATO and in the original documents, the military advice that is now being formed. And there are elements that may be needed and can be improved. We are now making every effort, both at parliamentary level and in other ways, ” 15min Laurynas Kasčiūnas, Chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Seimas, has said.
The core task is collective defense
As conveyed by the President’s Communications Group, the head of the country Gitanas Nausėda as a very serious value not only for the security of our country and region, but also for the security of the whole world.
“Unfortunately, no one has yet succeeded in forcing Vladimir Putin to end the brutal war and present his terrible intentions towards Ukraine. Starting with Ukraine, Putin obviously has bigger plans, including the destruction of the entire Euro-Atlantic security architecture. NATO has already adopted Russia’s demands and ultimatums with very clear allusions to the Baltic region.
Belarus has contributed to Russia’s brutal actions by giving it its own territory to carry out military aggression against sovereign Ukraine. Belarus de facto is part of Russia. Also a participant in Russian military aggression. And Lithuania is trapped between the highly militarized Kaliningrad region and Belarus, “the representatives of the presidency commented.
According to them, the President notes that this has significantly increased the main problem of Lithuania’s security – a short-term warning. The time it takes for NATO to respond has been reduced to almost zero.
According to Nausėda, the decisions to be adopted at the Madrid Summit must be acceptable, which is defined by the strengthening of the defense of NATO countries, which ensures that no weaknesses remain in the Alliance.
The security features of the Baltic region, including the Suwalki corridor, must be taken very seriously.
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