This week, Germany has deployed a permanent military brigade beyond its borders for the first time since the end of World War II.
The unit dispatched to the Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, was inaugurated on Thursday by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said during a military ceremony in the city that “the security of our Baltic allies is also our security.”
The groundbreaking German military decision is probably the most significant in a steady stream of actions by European countries to strengthen defenses on NATO’s eastern flank following persistent threats to security from Russia, as well as, President Donald Trump’s insistence that Europe does more both to defend itself and pay for that defense.
The deployment of the German permanent military is coming despite persistent efforts by the President Trump to bring to an end the fighting between Russia and Ukraine.
Merz said on Thursday, that “Russia’s aggressive revisionism” since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 meant it could seek to redraw the broader map of Europe and not just that of Ukraine.
The new German military on NATO’s eastern flank will encompass a huge combat unit of more than 4,000 soldiers, hundreds of civilian staff, and more than 1,500 vehicles, including tanks. It will be headquartered in Rudninkai near Vilnius and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2027.
Merz said, “anyone who threatens an ally must know that the entire alliance will jointly defend every inch of NATO territory.”
47th President of the United States (US), Donald Trump, has been piling pressure on America’s NATO allies to heighten their military spending, previously accusing Germany and other European countries of “freeloading” at Washington’s expense and even going as far as implementing a temporary pause on military aid to Ukraine in March this year.
Photo: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
