“Only united actions of all allies and partners will reach our goals in all the missions and operations of the Alliance, including victories in the fight against ISIL. We support only a political resolution to the crisis in Syria and we will remain to be active participants of the coalition against terrorism,” Minister of National Defence Raimundas Karoblis stated at the NATO Defence Ministers meeting in Brussels on October 24. The main session of the day concerned international missions and operations during which the Ministers discussed security situation in the Middle East, including Syria.
The Ministers were also briefed on the results of the ongoing NATO missions and the requirement of manning NATO forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Afghanistan has just seen presidential elections which will have a huge effect on further process of negotiations and reconciliation with the Taliban, as well as the future course of the NATO operation in Afghanistan.
“Lithuania has been steadily increasing its contribution to international operations and intends to continue. When speaking of the NATO operation of Afghanistan, it means that we will continue adhering to the same principle – we have deployed into the region together with the Alliance, we will adapt to the circumstances together, and we will leave together in case such is the decision,” R.Karoblis underscored. “Lithuania also remains to be an active participant of the coalition to defeat ISIL and we intend to maintain our input into the coalition operation in Iraq. And while we are contributing to the NATO efforts in Iraq, we are planning to provide training assistance in the area of military medicine together with the other Baltic and Nordic countries.”
Currently the total of 49 Lithuanian soldiers are deployed to Afghanistan and 15 – to Iraq. The U.S.-led Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq includes 6 Lithuanian military instructors who serve in composition of the Danish Army Contingent, and 9 Lithuanian soldiers are deployed to the NATO Training Mission-Iraq for training Iraqi security forces.
In total, over 150 Lithuanian service members are currently serving in different international operations and EU training missions.
More about Lithuania’s contributions to international operations.
