Minister of National Defence Arvydas Anušauskas and his NATO counterparts discussed the decisions taken at the NATO Summit in Vilnius and underscored the necessity to put them into practice shortly at the NATO Defence Ministers meeting on October 11-12.
“We have to implement the decisions taken in Vilnius quickly. Executability of the NATO defence plans is critical. Lithuania also calls for practical implementation of the Rotational NATO Air DE fence Model in our country. It is very important for us,” said A. Anušauskas at the main Defence Ministers session.
Minister discussed the implementation of the Rotational NATO Air Defence Model from the eastern flank of NATO with individual colleagues as well. A. Anušauskas had separate meetings with counterparts from Greece, Spain, Norway, Finland and Germany to invite them to contribute practically.
The Rotational NATO Air Defence Model would ensure rotational deployments of Allied ground-based air defence systems and strengthened aviation capabilities and thus enhance readiness of the NATO air and missile defence capabilities.
The NATO Defence Ministerial addressed strengthening NATO’s deterrence and defence, NATO operations, most relevant aspects of assistance to Ukraine. During the first meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council Defence Ministers A. Anušauskas welcomed Minister of Defence of Ukraine Rustem Umerov as an equal in the NATO community.
“We see this Council as a new ambitious step. The aim is to facilitate a fast and straight Ukraine’s path towards the NATO membership. It cannot be simply the same thing we had only put differently. Second, we value Ukraine’s effort to implement the defence reform in spite of war. We support everything you do. And third, NATO awareness in Ukraine has to improve. Fully operational NATO Liaison Office in Kyiv is crucial. It must be put back to work as soon as possible,” said A. Anušauskas.
The Northern Group Defence Ministers discussed critical infrastructure security. Ministers were debriefed by the Finnish and Estonian Allies on the assessment of the pipeline incident and discussed potential directions of cooperation in critical infrastructure security.
