Germany has signed an agreement with Lithuania to station troops in the country, leading to the first permanent foreign deployment of German troops since World War II.
The agreement was announced on Monday, Dec. 18, after Lithuanian Minister of Defense Arvydas Anusauskas and his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, met to discuss the multiyear “Roadmap Action Plan” for the permanent stationing of a German brigade consisting of approximately 4,800 troops in the country plus around 200 German civilians.
The agreement was originally announced in June, but no proper timeline on when German troops would be invited into Lithuania was presented until Monday.
“The German commitment of permanently stationing a brigade in Lithuania is a historical step for both Germany and Lithuania,” said Anusauskas in a press release. “We are turning over to a page of even deeper strategic partnership.”
“The German Brigade will significantly increase our defensive potential and enhance NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] deterrence and collective defense,” Anusauskas added. “The Roadmap signed today lays out in detail the track we and Germany will take to implement it.”
German Brigade to be combat-ready by 2027
According to the Roadmap, German troops, including those with families, will be permanently stationed near Lithuania’s two largest cities of Vilnius and Kaunas beginning in 2024. German troops will continue deploying to Lithuania in batches through 2025 and 2026. Full-operation capability is expected by 2027.
The troops will come from the 203rd Panzer Battalion, based in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 122nd Armored Infantry Battalion, based in Bavaria. They will be integrated into Lithuania’s Enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group, which will be transformed into a multinational battalion.
Most of the German troops will be stationed in the Rudninkai military training ground, a former Soviet airbase converted into a military training area located 22 miles southwest of Vilnius and only about 10 miles from the border with Belarus. The rest of the German troops will be stationed in the small town of Rukla, about 22 miles northeast of Kaunas and where some 1,000 other NATO troops already reside.
Lithuania will be providing the German troops with logistical hubs to cater to their needs, including three maneuver battalions and other combat support and supply units formed from new and existing military units.
Lithuanian lawmaker Laurynas Kasciunas, head of the parliamentary National Security and Defense Committee, noted that the country will be contributing up to 0.3 percent of its gross domestic product over the next several years to help fund the deployment of the German Brigade, including by building housing, renovating training grounds and providing them with other military and civilian infrastructure. He added that taxes may have to be raised to accommodate the Germans.
“With this war-ready brigade, we are assuming a leadership responsibility here in the alliance and on NATO’s eastern flank,” said Pistorius. “The speed of the project clearly shows that Germany understood the new security reality.”
“We will ensure reliable deterrence and we will be ready to defend NATO,” added Pistorius. “We are sending a clear signal with this step to those who present a threat to peace and security in Europe.”
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