The United States’ Heavy Battalion will continue to rotate to Lithuania without interruption until at least 2026, the country’s Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas told LRT after a meeting of the Bucharest Nine with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“The US has approved a rotational plan for Lithuania, which means that the US battalion will be there until 2025, inclusive,” he told LRT.
The fifth US heavy battalion with Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles has been rotating in Lithuania without interruption since the autumn of 2019.
According to Anušauskas, the US highly appreciates the appropriate conditions for the operation of its capabilities in Lithuania. This, the minister said, is one of the reasons why the battalion will remain in Lithuania.
“Now, the forces that have been in Lithuania continuously for the last one and a half years will be in Lithuania all the time until the end of 2025. I think that the US forces that are deployed in Lithuania [...] are also valued by the US because of the location, because of the training ground, because of the possibility to train continuously, because of the possibility to have a high level of readiness,” the minister said.
Anušauskas said that the decision to extend the presence of the rotational battalion in Lithuania shows that the US takes Baltic security seriously. At the same time, according to the minister, it also sends a message to Russia.
“These three-plus years show that the US is not reducing its attention to the security of the region. It is an important message for us, and I think it is also an equally important message for our aggressive neighbours. The Americans are here and they are not going anywhere,” Anušauskas noted.
We have achieved one of our most important goals – to make the US military presence in Lithuania permanent, 🇱🇹DefMin @a_anusauskas said today after 🇺🇸@SecDef confirmed that 🇺🇸US Heavy Battalion, which has been rotating in 🇱🇹 since 2019, will remain here until at least early 2026. pic.twitter.com/XwS3fwus8c
— Lithuanian MOD 🇱🇹 (@Lithuanian_MoD) October 14, 2022
He did not venture to speculate on what decisions the US will take after 2026.
Defence and deterrence will be strengthened in all Baltic countries. According to Anušauskas, Secretary Austin presented the US rotation plans for all three Baltic countries.
Lithuania is committed to continue to invest significantly in improving conditions for NATO troops.
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