German Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius said Germany is set to deploy a permanent army brigade in Lithuania to support initiatives on further strengthening NATO defense and security. He made the announcement during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon on Monday.
According to Pistorius, the German Army’s plan calls for deploying about 4,800 military and civilian personnel in Lithuania. The brigade, projected to be fully operational by 2027, will be composed of a mechanized infantry battalion and a tank battalion, along with the multinational “Enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup Lithuania.”
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Achieving Collective Security
“We are determined to assume greater responsibility for Europe’s deterrence and defense, while recognizing that the contribution of the United States of America remains indispensable to our collective security,” Pistorius stressed.
He also reiterated NATO members’ commitment to increasing defense investments to 5 percent of gross domestic product by 2035. Berlin’s core defense spending would reach 3.5 percent of German GDP by 2029, Pistorius said. Prior to a European Union defense ministers’ meeting in May, he noted that Germany is programming a budget increase of 0.2 percentage points annually in the next five years to gradually allocate the targeted 5 percent defense spending share in the country’s GDP.
Pistorius reassured Hegseth that Germany will continue to take a strong and reliable role in NATO. “We are firmly committed to fair burden sharing and to building a more capable, more reliable, more resilient Europe with NATO,” the German defense minister said.