On April 5 Vice Minister of National Defence with Prime Minister of Lithuania Saulius Skvernelis and Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki paid a visit to the Lithuanian Air Force Base in Šiauliai.
Lithuanian and Polish leaders met with Lithuanian soldiers serving at the Air Base and soldiers of the Polish Air Force Detachment conducting the NATO Air Policing Mission.
The detachment has been conducting the NATO Air Policing Mission in the Baltic states from Šiauliai Air Base since the beginning of this year with four F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets.
Poland is one of the most active contributors to the mission – the current four-month rotation is the eighth Poland’s deployment to the mission, with a prospect of sending in another one next year.
More about the Lithuanian-Polish defence cooperation
Some of the most recent instances of cooperation between Lithuania and Poland are two bilateral agreements signed by both Defence Ministers on February 21 earlier this year on affiliation of Lithuanian and Polish Armed Forces’ brigades to the Multinational Division North-East HQ, and on the creation of a secure communication channel for radar surveillance data exchange. The latter will help strengthening defence of the whole region together with partners by developing a unified air defence system, while the affiliation of Lithuanian and Polish brigades to a NATO division headquarters will significantly improve both countries’ readiness to act together if the Suwalki Gap is defended in case of a crisis or war and will improve NATO deterrence and defence in the eastern flank of the Alliance.
Formation of the aforementioned Multinational Division North-East HQ began in 2017. It coordinates conduct of joint military training and exercises and interoperability of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Groups in the Baltic states and Poland through national brigades at peacetime. Two Lithuanian officers have been serving at the headquarters of the Multinational Division North-East (MND NE ) in Elblag (Poland) since 2017.
Since 2003 Lithuania has been contributing to the activities of the top NATO unit in Poland – the Multinational Corps Northeast responsible for the security of the northeastern region of the Alliance. Eight Lithuanian officers have been serving it its headquarters in Szczecin since 2015.
Lithuania and Poland cooperate actively by sending soldiers to train in multinational exercises held in each other’s territories. Armed forces of Lithuania and Poland develop cooperation at various levels between its headquarters, training institutions and military units. Both countries also work together on military procurement, for instance, the Lithuanian Armed Forces bought GROM anti-aircraft defence systems from a Polish manufacturer through mediation of the Polish Armed Forces, the project is planned to be completed by 2021.
In terms of NATO assurance, Poland deployed two land force rotations to train in Lithuania in 2016.
The bilateral cooperation with Poland is developed in the framework of the European Union. Last November Poland joined the Lithuanian-initiated cyber response teams creation project.
In 2014 Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine established the LITPOLUKRBRIG trilateral brigade headquartered in Szczecin, Poland. The brigade was named after Great Hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Konstantinas Ostrogiškis and Defence Ministers of the participating countries agreed that the brigade and its subunits would be deployed to multinational operations according to provisions and principles of the international law. Soldiers of the Grand Duchess Birutė Uhlan Battalion and five staff officers serve in LITPOLUKRBRIG on Lithuania’s behalf, one of the latter is second-in-command of the Brigade.
Photo credits: Vygantas Švoba (Government of the Republic of Lithuania) and MoD
