Germany and Lithuania agree to station the Bundeswehr

The “turning point” in German security and defense policy also has a direct impact on Lithuania, among other things: Today, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and his Lithuanian counterpart Arvydas Anušauskas presented a “roadmap” in its capital Vilnius for the implementation of the planned stationing of a Bundeswehr Brigade signed in the Baltic state. Around 5,000 German army personnel are to be permanently stationed there from 2025. “With this war-ready brigade,” Pistorius said on this occasion, “we are taking on leadership responsibility here in the alliance and on NATO’s eastern flank.” The German department head had announced this plan just six months ago.

There is great concern in the Baltics about attacks from Putin's Russia - be they indirect hybrid or direct with regular armed forces - even before the major Russian attack on Ukraine last February. From this, the direct mission of the Atlantic Alliance is to deter the aggressive Russia, both nuclear and conventional.

“The establishment of the brigade in Lithuania,” says the BMVg, “is the flagship project of the turning point in security policy (…). The project is ambitious: never before has the Bundeswehr stationed so many soldiers and civilian members of the Bundeswehr permanently abroad.”

The German heavy combat brigade is said to consist of around 4,800 soldiers and around 200 civilian employees. The plan is to station them at the former Soviet air base Rūdninkai and at the largest Lithuanian base, Rukla, in the center of the country. Rūdninkai is only 16 kilometers from the Belarusian border. The brigade - consisting of the Panzergrenadier Battalion 122 from Oberviechtach in Bavaria, the Panzer Battalion 203 from Augustdorf in North Rhine-Westphalia and a multinational battalion as part of NATO's "enhanced Forward Presence" battle group (eFP) - is scheduled to be commissioned in 2025. Two years later, full operational capability should be achieved.

dr Gerd Portugall

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