BERLIN – Germany is preparing to permanently deploy 4,000 troops to Lithuania, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in Vilnius on Monday.
Infrastructure and training facilities need to be built, but Pistorius said Berlin will send a “robust brigade” to the Baltic country.
Pistorius had traveled to Lithuania to attend NATO exercises together with the secretary general of the military alliance, Jens Stoltenberg.
A year ago, after the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Berlin promised to have a combat brigade ready to defend Lithuania. However, a permanent deployment in Lithuania has so far been controversial. Vilnius demanded it, but the German government did not immediately commit.
Speaking to reporters in Lithuania, Pistorius added another important caveat to troop movements beyond adequate infrastructure: the alliance’s supreme commander in Europe, known as SACEUR, must continue to have the ability to order troop movements.
“SACEUR has certain interests and also very important interests,” the German minister said, “so we said he must have the ability to maintain military flexibility on the eastern flank.”
The decision to use German troops is supported by both the German governing coalition and the main opposition. Foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter, a centre-right CDU MP, called it was a “decision of reason and reliability”.
The announcement comes shortly after a short-lived mutiny in Russia by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner.
But a spokesman for the German Ministry of Defense said on Monday in Berlin: “The planning that is now beginning is to be seen exclusively with the preparations for the Vilnius summit and is not related to the events of the past weekend.”
Lili Bayer contributed to this report.