Today, Minister of National Defence Robertas Kaunas welcomed Minister of Defence of the Kingdom of Belgium Theo Francken conducting a visit in Lithuania. They discussed regional security, air defence, support to Ukraine, and other issues. The Belgian Minister of Defence with Chief of Defence of Belgium General Frederik Vansina came to Lithuania to visit the Belgian contingent in Rukla.
Meeting with the colleague, Minister R. Kaunas conveyed deepest condolences to family and brothers-in-arms of the Belgian servicemember who died as a result of injuries sustained in a training accident in Lithuania and thanked Belgium for contributing to defence of NATO’s eastern flank.
The meeting centered on assistance to Ukraine. R. Kaunas underscored that Europe was not living in a period of peace, therefore the EU needed to find ways to step support to Ukraine while retaining pressure on Russia. “The only reliable way to strengthen Ukraine’s military capability and perhaps to make Russia sit down to the negations table is to urgently increase financial assistance for Ukraine’s defence needs and keep the pressure on Russia at the same time. Lithuania will continue the 0.25% of GDP assistance at the minimum. At the same time, we need to ensure not just timely assistance to Ukraine but also to put more sanctions on the aggressor country targeting its income from energy and tightening the control on dual use product exports,” Minister R. Kaunas said.
Ministers also addressed regional security and hybrid attacks, exchanged experience on prevention of drone activity in restricted areas. R. Kaunas briefed the colleague on the Belarusian hybrid attack with smuggling balloons in more detail, as well as on the national decisions on strengthening air defence. Minister R. Kaunas also invited representatives of the Belgian defence industry to test innovative solutions against the hybrid threats in Lithuania.
Belgium is an active participant of the NATO Air Policing Mission in the Baltic states. When Lithuania joined NATO in 2004, it was the first country to send fighter aircraft to patrol the Baltic skies and has deployed seven air policing rotations to Šiauliai since then.
In 2023 Belgium became a full-fledged member of the Lithuanian coordinated Cyber Rapid Response Team (CRRT) Currently, over 200 Belgian servicemembers are deployed in Rukla with the NATO Multinational Battle Group (MN BG).
