A previously unannounced meeting between the Bucharest Nine Group and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is planned for Friday in Brussels, following a meeting of NATO defence ministers on Wednesday and Thursday. Lithuania may hear important news about the US beefing up its forces in the Baltics.
Several unrelated sources confirmed this to LRT but did not elaborate further on what decisions Lithuania can expect: a deployment of US troops or a strengthening of air defence.
Lithuania’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed to LRT that a meeting is planned. The so-called Bucharest Nine Group consists of the nine countries on NATO’s eastern flank and was created in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression against Ukraine in 2014.
LRT asked US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith what the purpose of the meeting was, but she did not elaborate.
“We often have the secretary [Austin] meet either with individual allies for a series of bilateral engagements or groups of countries. [...] I do believe that the secretary will be meeting with members of the Bucharest Nine Group,” Smith said during a media briefing on Tuesday.
“If that occurs, that will be a conversation that will carry forward a conversation that’s been ongoing with our friends on the eastern flank to better assess how they’re looking at the situation right now inside Ukraine, whether or not there are any specific security requirements that they feel they are not adequately addressing, and to have just a back-and-forth among our allies on a variety of NATO-related issues,” she added.
When it comes to specific decisions relevant to Lithuania, Ambassador Smith said they would follow from broad agreements reached at NATO’s Madrid summit in July.
“We are in the middle of working on a new force model and a series of plans here at NATO that will accompany that. So this is an ongoing conversation. In essence, what happens at a summit like Madrid is the alliance puts out its big goals in the form of the strategic concept, and now we’re in the process of actually implementing it. So many more components of NATO’s new deterrence and defence posture will be forthcoming, and I’m sure the secretary will have more to say about those discussions during his press avail later on Thursday,” she said.
The NATO defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels is taking place on October 12-13.
The first day is dedicated to a “Ramstein Format” meeting to discuss further military support to Ukraine. The meeting will be attended by Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, who will present the progress of the Russian war in Ukraine and the latest needs of the Ukrainian army.
On the second day, ministers will discuss the implementation of the decisions of the NATO summit in Madrid on defence and deterrence and the Russian nuclear threat.
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