The Lithuanian president and prime minister have alerted on Tuesday that Lithuania must find alternative air transportation for its leaders following two incidents with its military planes in two days.
Jens Stoltenberg EN
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Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis is to meet NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg next week to discuss possible deployment of additional allied capabilities in Lithuania, local media reported on Thursday.
United States President Donald Trump is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday. BNS Lithuania has asked three analysts whether this meeting poses any threat to Lithuania.
NATO's chief says that the Alliance will improve its ability to facilitate the movement of forces in Europe, but does not plan to deploy additional units to the Baltic countries and Poland.
Mindaugas Puidokas, a lawmaker of the ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LFGU), said that he has turned to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and members of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly over Rasa Juknevičienė's statements regarding his party.
Lithuania on Friday received an invitation from the Belarusian Defense Ministry to all accredited foreign defense attaches to take part in the observation program of the joint Belarusian-Russian strategic exercise Zapad 2017.
As NATO prepares to send more troops to Afghanistan, Lithuania also plans to increase its contingent in the volatile Central Asian country.
Lithuanian Defense Minister Raimundas Karoblis is taking part in a meeting of NATO defense ministries held in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the Alliance's counter-terrorism efforts and defense funding.
NATO will closely follow Russia's military exercises near the Baltic countries' borders, including its joint drills with Belarus and China, the Alliance's secretary general said in Lithuania on Tuesday.
Interests of countries should not be sacrificed for backstage agreements, however, Lithuania has confidence in the United States, Lithuania's Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said in Brussels on Tuesday.
NATO would want to receive detailed information in advance from Russia and Belarus about Zapad 2017 exercise scheduled for this year, as the scope and assault scenario of the training fuels concerns in the Baltic states.
Processes proceeding far from Lithuania and right by its borders lead to the conclusion that challenges to national security have not disappeared. Today it is hard to predict how things will proceed thus national defence is one of the priorities of national security policy.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday assured the Baltic states that the most important thing for the Alliance was to deter, not to copy Russian actions amid the rising tensions between the West and Moscow over its increased military activity in the Baltic Sea region.
Russia's Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko has accused the increased presence of NATO air policing mission fighter-jets for the frequent interception of Russian airplanes near the Baltic states.
NATO is watching the movement of Russian armed forces and equipment into Ukraine and towards the agreed truce line in eastern Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Lithuania on Friday.
Russia features all characteristics of terrorism amid the actions in Ukraine, says Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaitė.
NATO's new Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will Friday meet with top officials of Lithuania in Vilnius to discuss regional security. Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaitė said on the eve of the meeting that the visit indicates NATO's understanding the Baltic states are faced with.
The fact that the newly appointed Norwegian NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has chosen the Baltic States for one of his first visits shows that the Alliance understands the situation in the region, said President Dalia Grybauskaitė.
