LITHUANIA EXPECTS GERMANY’S INCREASING ROLE IN ENSURING BALTIC SECURITY

Courtesy of The Baltic Course    April 21, 2016

President Dalia Grybauskaite says that Lithuania expects that Germany will play an increasing rose in ensuring the security of the Baltic countries, reports LETA/BNS.

“I think we have this understanding and support (from Germany). Additional deterrent forces must be present in the Baltic countries and Lithuania, and we hope that Germany will increasingly take a leading role in this area,” she told reporters.Speaking after a meeting with President Joachim Gauck, Grybauskaite said in Berlin on Wednesday that Germany supported Lithuania’s wish that a greater NATO presence in Eastern Europe be approved at the Alliance’s summit in Warsaw in July.

According to the Lithuanian president, a visit by high-ranking German military officials to Lithuania is planned within the next two months.

In Grybauskaite’s worlds, the NATO-Russia diplomatic consultations to be held in Brussels on Wednesday should not be regarded as a return to cooperation.

“I’d regard this only as a re-establishment of contacts, but not yet cooperation. No practical cooperation is taking place and, apparently, will not take place in the near future,” the Lithuanian president said.