Lithuania, Poland to step up military cooperation, hold joint military exercises in Suwalki Gap

Lithuania and Poland are planning to hold joint military exercises in the Suwalki Gap, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has said.

“We will step up military cooperation [with Poland]. We will hold joint exercises, look for additional forms for our armed forces to train together, and strengthen military mobility,” Nausėda told reporters after a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Vilnius on Sunday.

Lithuania and Poland last conducted a joint military exercise in Klaipėda in early July 2023. Troops from the Special Operations Forces (SOF) of the two neighbouring countries then held a critical infrastructure recapture drill in Lithuania’s port city.

Gitanas Nausėda and Andrzej Duda | L. Bartkus / LRT

Polish President Duda also told reporters in Vilnius that the so-called Suwalki Gap is “the region that requires special attention, special monitoring”.

“We know how sensitive the Suwalki Gap is today in terms of European security,” he said.

The Suwalki Gap is a land strip of around 100 kilometres on the Lithuanian-Polish border that is wedged between the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the west and Belarus on the east.

The planned Lithuanian-Polish military exercise will be held in the Suwalki Gap, probably in April, Nausėda confirmed in an interview with the delfi.lt news website, published on Monday.

“I’m very happy that the Polish president has responded with enthusiasm to that desire to have a joint exercise in this area of land called the Suwalki Gap. We’re already talking about a very specific date, it could probably take place in April,” the Lithuanian president said.

Duda told the delfi.lt that Poland takes the defence of the Suwalki Gap seriously, adding that measures have already been taken in this respect.

“Over the last year, we have been restoring Poland’s defence capabilities in the eastern part of our country, where new units are being established. We are also restoring the capabilities of the units that have been present in Bartoszyce, Grajewo, and other places and we are strengthening Poland’s military presence and border protection,” the Polish president said.