On April 23-25 Chief of Defence of Lithuania Lieutenant General Arvydas Pocius took part in a meeting in Bille, Latvia, where the Baltic Chiefs of Defence addressed trilateral cooperation.
Chiefs of Defence also attended a formal welcome ceremony held for U.S. military deployed in the territory of Latvia.
At the meeting Chief of Defence LTG A.Pocius, Chief of Defence of Latvia Lieutenant General Raimonds Graube and Chief of Defence of Estonia Major General Riho Terras discussed future perspectives for multinational Exercise Baltic Host with a view of organising it at the highest state level.
CHODs also addressed the contributions that the Baltic States could commit for standby for the NATO Response Force (NRF) in 2016; Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are considering formation of a combined battalion for that purpose. When a trilateral Baltic Battalion was assigned for standby for the NRF in 2010 its staff and the major part of maneuver and provision units were formed on the basis of Lithuanian military.
Baltic Chiefs of Defence also took stock of such issues as capability development, activities of the Baltic Defence College, military training, combined air capability exercises with NATO allies, and ongoing trilateral projects - the Baltic Naval Squadron BALTRON and the Baltic Air Surveillance Network and Control System BALTNET.
CHODs also discussed joint exercises of Lithuania, Latvian and Estonian military personnel held in military training ranges of the Baltic States and the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission.
Spokesperson to the Chief of Defence of Lithuania Captain Tomas Pakalniškis
Photo: courtesy of the Ministry of Defence of Latvia
