At a meeting today, Vice Minister of National Defence Margiris Abukevičius and Commanding Officer of the United Kingdom-led Joint Expeditionary Force Maj Gen James Morris covered a range of issues – the intensified defence cooperation between Lithuania and the United Kingdom, the security situation in the Baltic region amidst the aggression against Ukraine, the increasing involvement of the United Kingdom in the Baltic region.
“The British military presence in Lithuania and the leadership of the United Kingdom in the Baltic region is a critical factor of deterrence, therefore we welcome the intensified cooperation with you: the deployment of a Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance capability that cooperates with our military, British helicopter units in different exercises, the deployment of the Standing Joint Force Headquarters right now,” said Vice Minister M. Abukevičius.
“The war in Ukraine has greatly complicated the situation, therefore the Standing Joint Force HQ deployment to Lithuania is very timely,” Vice Minister underscored.
As the United Kingdom steps up its involvement in the Baltic region and interoperability with NATO capabilities by request of Lithuania and Latvia in response to the situation in Ukraine, the Standing Joint Force HQ (SJFHQ) is deployed in the Baltic on May 2 through 31. Three SJFHQ components will be interacting from Lithuania, Latvia and the standing base in Northwood, UK, for the deployment period to train quick response to arising threats, joint planning, and a united response to hybrid actions in the Baltic Sea region, the High North and the North Atlantic Region. The 10 European coalition partner nations will delegate 200 military personnel to the operation, including cyber space and information operations experts.
The JEF is a high-readiness, roughly 10-thousand strong multinational unit established in 2015 and formed by land, maritime and air capabilities contributed by the ten European partner nations (Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the UK). The capability is tailored to respond to emergencies in Europe and beyond, from humanitarian assistance to deterrence and combat actions on UN, EU or NATO mandate. Elements of the force can be activated for the NATO Article 5 operations as well. One of the main forms of JEF activity is deployment to joint JEF exercise as and operations.
