Lithuania has the federal government with a view to the promised stationing of 4,000 Bundeswehr soldiers on NATO’s eastern flank urged to hurry. “We should now focus on agreeing on an ambitious and rapid timetable for full deployment,” Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Jonas Survila told Welt am Sonntag.
Vilnius is ready to make “significant investments in the infrastructure needed to accommodate the German troops,” he added.
Today we feel like West Berlin during the Cold War.
Lithuania’s Deputy Foreign Minister Jonas Survila
The politician drew one in view of the war in Ukraine historical comparison. “Today we feel like West Berlin during the Cold War: surrounded by aggressive neighbors from both the West, Kaliningrad, Russia, and the East, Belarus,” said Survila.
“At that time, the security of West Berlin was guaranteed, among other things, by the fact that a garrison the size of a US Army brigade was stationed in the city, the Berlin Brigade. Today we are asking the Germans, both symbolically and practically, to contribute to security by permanently stationing a combat-ready German brigade in Lithuania,” Survila said.
At the end of June, Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) announced the permanent transfer of 4,000 Bundeswehr soldiers to NATO partner country Lithuania in order to protect NATO’s eastern flank. The prerequisite is “the appropriate infrastructure” on site as well as the “Compatibility with the NATO plans”stressed the Minister of Defense. (AFP)
