A Bundeswehr incident command is heading to the Baltics today. The task: prepare everything for the permanent stationing of a brigade in Lithuania. A lighthouse project for Defense Minister Pistorius.
How important this first step is to the Defense Minister can be seen from the fact that he will personally see off the incident team at the airport. The Lithuania Brigade, the permanent stationing of Bundeswehr soldiers in the Baltics, is a long overdue step for Boris Pistorius.
As he put it at an event in November, Germany was finally meeting the demand to take on a more active role within NATO. It is a strong signal to the allies, especially to the Baltic states and to Lithuania. And an important aspect of the turning point.
Clarification of fundamental questions
However, it will take some time before the new brigade is fully operational. The first task for the incident command is to create the conditions for deployment. Because unlike before, the soldiers will not spend just a few months here on a rotating basis, but rather for a longer period of time. Fundamental questions must therefore be clarified: How should the barracks be equipped? Is there enough living space for the families? What about daycare places and schools?
How many soldiers decide to serve in Lithuania will also depend on the general conditions. Everyone in the ministry is also aware of this.
5,000 employees by 2027
The next step will follow in the fall: Then the specialists from the so-called deployment staff will arrive – around 150 experts with experience in stationing abroad. If everything goes according to plan, larger units will gradually be relocated to Lithuania. By the end of 2027, the brigade will consist of around 4,800 soldiers and 200 civilian members of the Bundeswehr.
The German brigade’s main deployment locations are said to be Rukla and the Rudninkai military training area not far from the border with Belarus, which was previously used by the Red Army. The soldiers and their families will live in the capital Vilnius and Kaunas.
Open questions regarding financing
The Defense Minister sees the brigade on the right track. However, not everyone shares his optimism, especially not in the Union. The foreign policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Jürgen Hardt, would expressly welcome it if significantly more German soldiers were to serve in Lithuania in the coming years and, in the best case, Germany also made a more intensive contribution to airspace control. But this must also be financed accordingly. Many CDU/CSU members doubt that this will succeed.
The Defense Minister has so far left it open as to exactly what sums are involved. According to Pistorius, everyone knows that the brigade is not in vain. Just as everyone knows that the threat situation in Europe has worsened. The time has come for the SPD politician to get more involved and give something back. For many years, Germany was NATO’s eastern flank, which was protected by its allies. Today it is important to take responsibility yourself.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently emphasized once again in the presence of the Latvian Prime Minister that Germany is ready for this. Because one thing is clear: without security everything is nothing.
Mario Kubina, ARD Berlin, tagesschau, April 8, 2024 12:09 a.m