Germany to deploy brigade of 4,000 troops in Lithuania

Germany intends to send a brigade of 4,000 troops to Lithuania, said German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.

“It is expected that we will see the creation of the brigade at the end of 2024. This is a serious challenge not only for Lithuania, but also for us. This is unprecedented for the German Bundeswehr. We have never done this to station an entire brigade abroad,” he told Estonian broadcasting portal ERR on October 3.

Pistorius said: “We are in very good talks with our Lithuanian friends about the steps we will take in the coming years. By the end of November or beginning of December we will have a road map, and then we will know more precisely how to move forward.”

According to him, “we need barracks, warehouses, training grounds, as well as civilian infrastructure for the families of soldiers.”

One of the points in creating the brigade is to attract volunteers to Lithuania, “but we are not talking about this yet, because we are building the infrastructure and the basis for everything else,” said the head of the German Defense Ministry.

Pistorius said that the German government is also considering starting the production of ammunition in Estonia.

“We need to see in which area there could be more cooperation and industrial production in Estonia, but this is primarily a question not for the German government, but for the German defence industry, which is privately owned and not publicly owned,” he said.

Pistorius noted that Germany plans to increase defence spending to 2% of the gross domestic product and even more.

“We must make efforts to achieve 2% of GDP annually, but I am confident that in the next few years, we will go further,” the defence minister said.