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Lithuania repeated its request for an increased presence of German troops on its territory to defend NATO's eastern flank, DPA reported.

"I hope that the discussions will come to an end and we will move on to the specific planning issues," Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonite was quoted as saying today by the Baltic News Service agency.

She said the government was doing its job, budgeted for military mobility and field support, and would do whatever it took to get as many allied troops into Lithuania as possible.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda agreed at a meeting in Vilnius in June to deploy troops in response to Russia's war on Ukraine.

While the government in Vilnius suggests that a full brigade of rotating troops will be stationed in Lithuania, the German government has repeatedly stated that a standby brigade will be provided and that part of it will be stationed in Lithuania and part of it in Germany, and that it can be deployed within a few days.

Lithuania to host German military brigade until 2026

This caused confusion and internal political discussions in the Baltic state, which would not have been able to host an entire brigade on its territory anyway due to a lack of infrastructure.

Lithuania borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea and Russia's ally Belarus.

The Baltic country in northeastern Europe has been the base of a German-led NATO battalion of 1,600 troops since 2017.

More than half of them are from the German army, notes BTA.

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Lithuania

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the war in Ukraine