Lithuania on Friday opened a short railway stretch to be used by NATO forces in the country.
The 1-kilometre railway section will help connect the training and deployment area in Pabradė, eastern Lithuania, with the country’s only seaport of Klaipėda, facilitating the transport of allied forces.
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"Symbolically, this infrastructure is launched with the uploading of equipment of the US army, the US battalion," Lithuanian Minister Defence Minister Raimundas Karoblis told reporters.
An armoured American battalion, including some 500 troops, 30 Abrams tanks and over 20 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles was deployed in Lithuania last October on a six-month roation. On Friday, it was also the first to use the newly opened railway line on their way to the port of Klaipėda.
Read more: US armour arrives in Lithuania – photos
The railway not only makes it “easy now for us to redeploy and for US troops to return to the US, but also it makes it easier for troops to come back”, said US Ambassador to Lithuania Robert Gilchrist.
“And I am certain that American troops will be back in Lithuania in a very active way,” he added.
"It contributed to logistics and mobility. It's much easier to transport such heavy equipment by rail rather than by road," said Mantas Bartuška, CEO of the state-owned Lietuvos Geležinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways).
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