Lithuania

Lithuania seeks to make U.S. troop deployment permanent

cde.news desk 9 February 2022, 15:40 · 1 min read

epa09385816 US servicemen guard during parachute exercise attending the multinational military exercise 'Agile Spirit 2021' at the military base of Vaziani, outside Tbilisi, Georgia, 01 August 2021. Agile Spirit 2021 is a project involving NATO members and partner countries of 15 countries like Georgia, USA, UK, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Azerbaijan, Spain, Canada, Italy and Lithuania. More than 2,500 military personnel take part in Agile Spirit 2021, reported the Georgia's Ministry of Defense. EPA-EFE/ZURAB KURTSIKIDZE

RUKLA, Lithuania, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Lithuania will ask the United States to permanently station troops in the country to help boost security, the Baltic nation’s president said on Wednesday.

Since 2019 the U.S. has deployed non-overlapping rotations of battlegroups of about 500 troops and equipment in Lithuania.

“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.

“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.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, writing by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche)

File photo of US troops. EPA-EFE/ZURAB KURTSIKIDZE