Poland has invited Lithuania to step up military cooperation, President Gitanas Nausėda has said after a phone call with his Polish counterpart.
He told the TV3 programme Dėmesio Centre (In Focus) Thursday that he had received a call from Polish President Andrzej Duda “with a very interesting proposal”.
“We are talking about closer cooperation in military security. However, we still need to discuss its form and ways,” the Lithuanian president said.
Nausėda said he could not yet elaborate on this issue because “we also need to assess our possibilities” but noted that “more Poland in Lithuania” would be one of Lithuania’s strategic goals.
“We can talk about different models. These can be rotational, permanent models. It is probably understandable that we start with initial forms of cooperation and then we will want to deepen that cooperation,” he said.
“Actually, I would be very happy about that, because we have really achieved a good dynamic in our relations with Poland, both in the military and in the security area, and it would really make sense to take advantage of this excellent engagement, especially in the current circumstances,” the president said.
He stressed that closer military cooperation with Poland would not contradict the goal of having more German troops deployed in Lithuania.
Germany currently leads NATO’s multinational enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group, a unit of up to 1,500 troops, stationed in Lithuania since 2017.
Vilnius seeks permanent deployment of the German brigade assigned to Lithuania last year on a rotational basis.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
