On August 26-27 Minister of National Defence Raimundas Karoblis will meet Minister of Defence of Portugal João Gomes Cravinho who will arrive with an official visit to Lithuania. Ministers will discuss topical issues of active bilateral co-operation, strengthening of regional defence, the upcoming meetings of NATO defence ministers and NATO summits as well as European Union defence initiatives.
Before the official bilateral meeting in Vilnius on 26 August, Lithuanian and Portuguese Defence Ministers will visit Lithuanian Grand Duke Butigeidis Dragoon Battalion in Klaipėda. Here they will meet with the Commander of the Motorized Infantry Brigade “Žemaitija” Colonel Artūras Radvilas, and Portuguese troops deployed with our troops in the battalion from July.
Portuguese troops are deployed at Butigeidis Dragoon Battalion and are training with the troops of this battalion. During rotational period until September, Portuguese troops undergo joint training with the Lithuanian Navy and Special Operations Forces. This is the third time when Portuguese rotational troops have arrived to Lithuania under NATO measures of reassurance, launched in 2014 after Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Defence cooperation between Lithuania and Portugal in recent years has increased. In addition to sending rotational forces to Lithuania, Portugal is an active member of NATO air policing mission in the Baltic States. This country’s Air Force with its F-16 fighters has been patrolling over the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian airspace already four times from the Lithuanian Air Force Base in Šiauliai.
Portugal is also contributing to the NATO Force Integration Unit in Vilnius by sending officers to the unit’s headquarters. Portuguese Minister of Defence and a delegation also visit the NATO Force Integration Unit and NATO Energy Security Center of Excellence in Vilnius.
NOTE:
On August 27, Tuesday, at 9.00- 9: 10 the official welcoming ceremony of the Minister of Defence of Portugal will take place in the square next to the Ministry of National Defence.
Associated photo / MND archive / aut. L. Jokšaite
