On July 17 Commander of the German Bundeswehr Joint Forces Operations Command Lieutenant General Erich Pfeffer met with acting Chief of the Defence Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Brigadier General Raimundas Vaikšnoras at the Defence Staff HQ.
The Generals overviewed the security situation in the region, participation of Lithuanian military personnel in multinational operations, and activities of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group Lithuania led by Germany. Brig Gen R. Vaikšnoras thanked Germany for active involvement of its armed forces in ensuring security in the eastern flank of the Alliance and underscored that persistent presence of allied forces in Lithuania and the region was a powerful signal of deterrence for potential aggressors.
A representative of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Strategic Communication Department provided a briefing on the situation in Lithuania's information space and Lithuania's counteractions to the hostile information impact, as well as the experience of the Lithuanian Armed Forces on the subject.
Commander of the German Bundeswehr Joint Forces Operations Command Lt Gen Erich Pfeffer thanked the Lithuanian Armed Forces for the contribution to the United Nations-led operation in Mali (MINUSMA) where Lithuanian soldiers are ensuring protection of the military base in the province of Gao. He also stressed that Lithuanian and German soldiers had refined interoperability over the several years of cooperation and understood each other much better as a result.
Lt Gen E. Pfeffer also thanked for Lithuania's efforts to improve the Host Nation Support for the German soldiers deployed as part of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group Lithuania and for ensuring excellent conditions for rehearsing defence.
Lithuania and Germany are bound together by a particularly successful and fruitful military cooperation. Germany has already deployed ten rotations of the NATO Air Policing Mission to protect the Baltic airspace since 2004. Germany also assists Lithuania in upgrading its Armed Forces and military equipment, took the role of leadership of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group and proactively assembled forces of other allies. The Mechanised Infantry Brigade Iron Wolf of the Lithuanian Armed Forces (into which the NATO Battle Group is integrated) was affiliated to the German Bundeswehr Division last year in order to achieve better interoperability which is essential for effective national defence.
Photo credits: Maj Tomas Balkaus
PAO for the Lithuanian Armed Forces Defence Staff Maj Tomas Balkus
+370 5 219 6401, +370 686 28035, tomas.balkus@mil.lt
