Lithuania is confident that a German brigade will be deployed on its territory by 2027 as agreed, despite the fracturing of the country’s ruling three-party coalition, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Thursday.
Landsbergis said he hoped the German political situation would stabilize rapidly and that he did not expect there to be any effect on the planned stationing of up to 5,000 German troops in the Baltic country.
“A stable Germany is an extremely important factor for Lithuania, Ukraine and the European Union, as an ongoing unstable situation is damaging to everyone,” he said.
“Could this have a direct impact on our agreement regarding the brigade? I don’t think so,” Landsbergis added.
In response to the altered security situation in Europe since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Germany has agreed to station a combat-ready unit permanently in Lithuania that is capable of independent deployment.
Speaking on Lithuanian radio, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė described the deployment as an obligation that was too important to be altered by the electoral cycle.
Defence Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas said the decision was effectively irreversible at this stage.
Both leaders also noted that Germany’s largest opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has backed the planned deployment.
