This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Lithuania’s president says the Baltic nation will ask the United States to permanently station troops in the country as Western allies seek to beef up security amid concerns about Russia’s military intentions in the tense region.
“Of course, we will be talking to the U.S. to make sure that the rotational U.S. forces would be in Lithuania permanently,” President Gitanas Nauseda told a news conference on February 9.
“That would be the best boost to security and deterrence that NATO could provide not only to Lithuania but to the whole region,” Nauseda said.
The United States has since 2019 deployed regular rotations of battlegroups of about 500 soldiers at a time to NATO ally Lithuania, a former Soviet republic that has a border with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.
Other NATO allies have also announced plans to bolster troop levels in Eastern Europe and the Baltics amid rising tensions with Moscow and a flurry of hastily called diplomatic and security meetings in the region.
Western intelligence reports say that Russia has placed more than 100,000 troops near the border of Ukraine, spawning mounting concern over an imminent incursion. Moscow denies it is planning to invade Ukraine.
The United States has said it was placing 8,500 troops on “heightened alert” to be ready to deploy to Europe, potentially at short notice, if needed to reassure NATO allies.
The Lithuanian president’s comments come on the same day that the Netherlands said it will increase the number of its troops in a NATO battlegroup in Lithuania to 350 from 270.
The Dutch force is part of a German-led NATO battlegroup that was deployed to the region five years ago.
“We are committed to the Enhanced Forward Presence,” Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said while speaking to troops at a military base in Rukla, Lithuania.
Separately on February 9, Slovakia’s parliament approved a defense treaty with the United States.
The cooperation agreement passed 79-60 in the 150-seat legislature. It allows the U.S. military to use Slovak air bases at Malacky-Kuchyna and Sliac for 10 years.
NATO member Slovakia will receive $100 million from the U.S. military to help modernize the two facilities.
