The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense has published an appeal to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) calling for the expansion of NATO battalions already located in the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) to brigades.
This was reported by Reuters.
“Lithuania, together with other countries on the eastern flank of NATO, is seeking to strengthen the battle groups of the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence into forward presence brigades," Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas was quoted as saying.
Anusauskas, who did not state the expected size of the brigades, said decisions on reshaping the forces will be taken at a NATO summit in Madrid in June.
The agency recalls that in 2017, NATO deployed four multinational battalions of about 1,000 people each in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as well as Poland in response to Russia's illegal seizure of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, at the end of January, U.S. President Joe Biden ordered the transfer of American soldiers to the countries of Eastern Europe, which are NATO members, to strengthen the eastern wing of the alliance against the background of the concentration of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine.
We also reported that at the end of 2021, NATO reduced the readiness time of the rapid response forces.
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