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Germany will deploy 2 tank battalions to the Russian border. Photo/Illustration
BERLIN – The German Ministry of Defense has announced that it will deploy two tank battalions to Lithuania , which will form a new brigade together with the joint NATO Forward Presence Battlegroup, which is already stationed in the Baltic country. The new unit, which is expected to be formed by 2025, will consist of a total of 4,800 military personnel.
“The 203rd Tank Battalion and the 122nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion will be redeployed to Lithuania,” the ministry said in a statement as quoted by RT, Tuesday (7/11/2023).
The resulting new tank unit will be named Tank Brigade 42. Additional troops will join the German-led NATO contingent once all the necessary infrastructure is in place.
There are currently around 1,700 troops from six NATO member countries stationed in the Baltic states; about half of them were members of the German military.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius described the deployment plan as a beacon project for a change of era, and stressed that in place of the two brigades, the Bundeswehr would create several new units from scratch, which would be stationed on German soil.
Speaking to German media last month, Pistorius explained that with this action, Berlin was seeking to show solidarity and responsibility in the East Wing.
He also described Russia as a threat, adding that this would likely remain the case for at least the next few years.
The German official first revealed the deployment plans in June after meeting his Lithuanian counterpart Arvydas Anusauskas.
Russia has repeatedly warned NATO against moving its troops closer to its borders, and said it must provide an appropriate response to the rise in military power in Eastern Europe, which intensified following the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014 and the ensuing conflict in Donbass.