On June 14-15 Vice Minister of National Defence Margiris Abukevičius met with Ministers of Defence of partner nations of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) to discuss the support to Ukraine and its continuation, as well as the role of JEF in providing security assurances to Sweden and Finland until the two countries are a full-fledged members of NATO.
“Lithuania is and will be supporting Ukraine in every way possible. We identify three more directions where JEF could be effective, including with Lithuania’s contribution. These are rehabilitation treatment for injured military personnel and training for Ukrainian troops, instructors and demining experts,” M. Abukevičius.
Vice Minister attended a political level table-top exercise alongside Ministers of Defence of the other JEF partner nations, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK, to practically test the JEF role in responding to an escalating crisis and the scenario of coordinated JEF-NATO actions in such an event.
During the meeting Vice Minister thanked for the deployment of the JEF HQ n Lithuania in May. According to M. Abukevičius, it was a highly time decision.
“We look on the JEF as one of the first capabilities to respond in a crisis situation in our region. Evidently, a full-rate action requires cohesion with NATO and generation of concrete plans for force cooperation in common defence, on which we need to have decisions, and as soon as possible,” stated Vice Minister.
Other topics addressed at the meeting were the current security challenges, including implications of the illegitimate Russian invasion of Ukraine, and further JEF development so that is able to be effective in ensuring security and stability in the Baltic Sea region, the High North and the North Atlantic.
As all Defence Minister stand in strong support to the Finnish and Swedish applications for NATO membership, options for the JEF to support and ensure the security of the two countries over the transitional period were discussed.
The Joint Expeditionary Force is a brigade-sized high-readiness multinationally force combat unit formed by air, sea and land capabilities of 10 partner nations Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Its primary mission is rapid response operations under the European Union NATO or United Nations flag. Elements of the JEF could be also activated for NATO’s Article 5 operations. One of the main JEF activities is joint JEF exercises and operations.
JEF exercises in the Baltic Sea region trains rapid response to arising threats, planning of joint procedures, and providing a unified response to hybrid activities in the Baltic Sea regions, High North, and the North Atlantic region. The Standing Joint Force HQ (SJFHQ) was for the first time deployed in Lithuania for almost a month in May this year. The primary SJFHQ objective was to run an international command-post exercise to test and enhance channels of communication between Lithuania, Latvia and the SJFHQ in Northwood.
