Berlin vows to strengthen NATO's eastern flank, ministries to discuss brigade in Lithuania

VILNIUS - Berlin vows to continue strengthening NATO's eastern flank but stresses that concrete steps on the presence of a German brigade in Lithuania will be discussed by ministries, the German government told BNS that a gradual deployment of a German brigade in Lithuania had been agreed after the president's meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

"The federal government will continue to make a substantial contribution to strengthening the eastern part of NATO. For this purpose, the federal government has assigned a German brigade to protect Lithuania. In his talks with President Nauseda yesterday, Chancellor Scholz confirmed that the joint agreement of June 2022 remains unchanged with regard to Germany's engagement with a brigade to defend Lithuania," the German government said in a comment sent to BNS. "The concrete implementation will be discussed between the defense ministries on the basis of this agreement."

The Lithuanian president visited Berlin last week where he and the German chancellor discussed regional security issues, including their 2022 joint communiqué on the deployment of a German brigade in Lithuania.

After the meeting, Nauseda told BNS that they agreed with the German chancellor on a gradual deployment of the German brigade in Lithuania, and the unit's full deployment will be sought in 2026, once the infrastructure necessary for allies is in place.

Although the Lithuanian and German leaders agreed on the deployment of the German brigade in Vilnius last year, Vilnius and Berlin have differed on the size of this deployment, at least so far.

Lithuania wants the German brigade's permanent presence, however, only is command unit is deployed in Lithuania yet. Berlin has so far said that part of the brigade will be deployed in Lithuania and the remaining part will stay in Germany.