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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attended on Tuesday Lithuania's largest international military drill Iron wolf 2017 to observe the readiness of allied enhanced forward presence (EFP) battlegroups deployed in the Eastern Europe amid security tensions.
NATO Secretary General says the battlegroups deployed in Lithuania as well as Poland, Latvia and Estonia "send a clear message."
"An attack on one Ally is an attack on all. They show the continuing strength of the transatlantic bond," Stoltenberg said after attending Iron wolf 2017, the largest military training in Lithuania this year.
EFP multinational battalions have been deployed in the Baltic countries and Poland under last year's agreements made at NATO's Warsaw summit. EFP battlegroups have been stationed in the NATO's Eastern flank to conduct joint training with local forces and respond in the case of military conflict.
The EFP battlegroup stationed in Lithuania is led by German troops.
"And for the first time these forces are on exercise with the NATO battlegroup based in Poland," Stoltenberg said at a joint press conference with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.
On Tuesday, the NATO secretary general and the Lithuanian president observed a water obstacle crossing operation in central Lithuania.
Iron Wolf 2017 is attended by around 5,300 troops from Lithuania and nine allied NATO countries, including the United States, Britain and Germany. This year allied forces train in the Suwalki Gap, a 100-km-long stretch between Belarus and Russia's enclave Kaliningrad connecting Lithuania with neighboring Poland.
The Baltic country with a population of less than 3 million has stepped up its defense capabilities and asked for an increased allied military presence on its soil since 2014 following conflicts in eastern Europe.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
