On November 2 Chief of Defence of Lithuania Lieutenant General Jonas Vytautas Žukas and the new Ambassador of the United States in Lithuania, HE Anne Hall, had their first meeting at the Office of the Lithuanian Armed Forces to discuss security situation in the region, plans for strengthening Lithuanian security and both bilateral and multilateral military cooperation between Lithuania and the United States.
Lt Gen J. V. Žukas thanked Ambassador A. Hall for the unwavering and manifold US support to the security of Lithuania and expressed a hope that the cooperation between the countries will only grow in the future. General underscored the vital importance of the presence of US troops and prepositioning of military reserves on the territory of Lithuania because it shortens the time of military response in cases of contingencies.
"It is in our interest to ensure that the deterrence the US provides in Lithuania is sustained, for which reason we see a need to have additional US forces in specific cases training in Lithuania while rotational US forces would change over. An option we suggest is to expand the training of our longstanding partner, the US Pennsylvania National Guard, in Lithuania," Lt Gen J. V. Žukas said.
Currently, there are roughly 280 soldiers with the Able Company, 2-503,173rd Airborne Brigade and a logistic element training in Lithuania together with our soldiers.
Appointed on 7 October 2016, Anne Hall is the 14th Ambassador of the United States in Lithuania since the establishment of Lithuanian-US diplomatic relations in 1992. Ms. A. Hall was the Deputy Chief of Mission in 2010-2013, and after that - Charge d'Affairs for some time . A Minister-Counsellor class career diplomat, Ms. A.Hall is a member of the senior Foreign Service and has considerable experience of work with Eastern European countries.
POC: Spokesperson for the Chief of Defence Captain Mindaugas Neimontas, office phone no: 00370 5 278 5091, cell phone no: 00370 682 25359, e-mail: mindaugas.neimontas@mil.lt
