Gediminas Kirkilas. Will the Baltic become the internal sea of the alliance for Lithuania as well?
“We welcome our coastal defense missile systems,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkurs said. “The range of the Estonian and Finnish missiles is greater than the width of the Gulf of Finland. This means,” he continued, “that we will combine missile defense and exchange information with each other.”
Not only Estonians and Finns started to search for regional collective security solutions around the Baltic Sea. News agency reports also announce that a defense cooperation agreement between Denmark, Sweden and Norway was signed a couple of years ago. In other words, without waiting for the formal accession of Sweden and Finland to the Alliance, specific cooperative defensive actions of the neighboring countries began around the Baltic Sea, which is becoming the internal sea of NATO.
The word “cooperative” needs to be emphasized, because the sum of NATO member countries around the Baltic Sea is not yet sufficient security without real coordination of military cooperation, sharing of capabilities and resources. Neighboring countries have common defense interests, often need resources, common, need airspace borders, etc. The aim is to use the available resources as efficiently as possible through bilateral or multilateral agreements.
It is true that even before NATO membership, Sweden and Finland cooperated quite closely with the Alliance, but the current situation opens up completely different possibilities, and finally the entire Alliance will have to submit the plans for this, now the Baltic Sea flank. such could even be approved at the Vilnius NATO summit next year.
However, what is Lithuania’s position in observing the active actions of neighboring countries? What is the country’s defense and foreign policy strategy, as the Baltic Sea becomes an internal NATO sea? We hardly hear anything about this in Lithuania, no ideas are considered in this aspect either in the signed party defense or in the yet to be signed draft foreign policy agreement.
We do not hear the opinions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Defense, or the president, nor do we see any actions or initiatives in this direction. I would think that at the moment they would be extremely relevant and timely, helping to lay the strategic foundations for the defense and security of the Baltic Sea. The time won for us by the heroic struggle of Ukraine is not waiting, as we have repeatedly and rightly said about our policy, so we have to believe in their respective steps.
In general, unfortunately, it has to be stated that the three Baltic States cooperate too little in the field of defense, although their interests are similar. It is not known, for example, whether they at least coordinate the purchase of expensive weapons, and joint purchases, it seems, have not been discussed for a long time.
In general, unfortunately, it has to be stated that the three Baltic States cooperate too little in the field of defense, although their interests are similar. It is not known, for example, whether they at least coordinate the purchase of expensive weapons, and joint purchases, it seems, have not been discussed for a long time.
The decisions of the Madrid summit and, above all, for NATO’s greater security and geopolitical security, especially around the Baltic Sea. And although politicians like to talk about the Baltic becoming the internal sea of the Alliance, it will take real efforts by the members of the countries to really implement it. Estonia with Finland, as we can see, started, as did the Danes with Norwegians and Swedes.
After all, I hope that Russia, because of its aggression in Ukraine, will “gain” more than a thousand kilometers of border with NATO, will sit on its hands, it’s not worth it. And although at the moment the Kremlin, apparently not wanting to draw too much attention to this obvious geopolitical defeat, is almost silent or pretending that nothing special has happened, it will undoubtedly behave differently in the future.
By signing separate regional defense agreements, which, by the way, is encouraged by the NATO strategy, the countries structure and strengthen the security of the internal sea of the Alliance. Around the Baltic, as we know, there are also Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland, as well as Germany. Among them, Lithuania perhaps has the most complicated geopolitical and geographical situation, being between Kaliningrad and the Kremlin’s de facto satellite, Belarus. The parties agreed to strengthen internal territorial defense, which is correct, but apparently it is not enough today.
It is necessary for Lithuania to get involved as soon as possible in the real transformation of the Baltic Sea into an internal sea of the Alliance. However, such an aspiration, this direction, as I have already mentioned, is not yet in the signed agreement on defense, nor in the still unsigned agreement on foreign policy. The relevant agencies, ministries and the presidency do not show any particular activity so far.
It is necessary for Lithuania to get involved as soon as possible in the real transformation of the Baltic Sea into an internal sea of the Alliance. However, such an aspiration, this direction, as I have already mentioned, is not yet in the signed agreement on defense, nor in the still unsigned agreement on foreign policy. The relevant agencies, ministries and the presidency do not show any particular activity so far.
It seems to me that the separation of these bipartisan deals, defense and foreign policy, was just a mistake. We can see this even more clearly in the defensive strategic aspect of the Baltic Sea. Because getting involved in agreements between countries that would structure the entire Baltic in terms of security is common to both security and defense and, of course, foreign policy.
The agreement on the country’s foreign and defense policy needs to be updated or at least supplemented, because now the signed defense and still only a foreign policy project is similar, it is already lagging behind the realities of the times, as is the thinking of our politicians, who cannot keep up with the rapidly changing geopolitical situation.
On the other hand, interaction with the partners of neighboring countries, including Finland and Sweden, is not new to the Lithuanian army. And at the moment, there are very common units, plans, and training with our Polish, Latvian, and Danish neighbors. German soldiers are already in Lithuania, just like the United States, and their presence will continue to expand. The air police mission of the Baltic countries is very important, which also needs to be developed, NATO also has such plans. However, other political solutions are also needed, how to better use our tourism resources together with our neighbors, or perhaps to acquire new ones by combining finances together.
It is not worth arguing too much about fortifications and other defense engineering solutions, although I do not think that these are the most effective methods of modern defense, as the experience of the war in Ukraine already quite clearly shows. Only this experience is analyzed by our Military Academy, military experts, I will have a conclusion and advice for politicians.
It is not worth arguing too much about fortifications and other defense engineering solutions, although I do not think that these are the most effective methods of modern defense, as the experience of the war in Ukraine already quite clearly shows. Only this experience is analyzed by our Military Academy, military experts, I will have a conclusion and advice for politicians.
Whether the Baltic will become the internal sea of the Alliance for Lithuania also depends on our proactive policy, the ability to agree, together, properly use our tourism resources, and connect them with our neighbors. This is without prejudice to all possible actions to strengthen defenses within the country. However, it seems to me that the priorities of the defense policy are different at the moment. First of all, I would like to see the fastest possible creation of conditions for a larger allied military group on the territory of the country, as well as the closest possible integration of military resources and coordination of actions of the neighboring countries around the Baltic States.
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