Germany has officially launched its first permanent foreign military deployment since the end of World War Two, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Defence Minister Boris Pistorius inaugurated a new brigade in Lithuania on Thursday.
The deployment marks a significant milestone in Germany’s evolving defence policy, with 5,000 troops eventually expected to be stationed in Lithuania by 2027. The brigade will be based along NATO’s eastern flank, close to Russia and Belarus, reinforcing the alliance’s commitment to collective defence in the face of growing regional tensions.
At the inauguration ceremony held in Vilnius, Chancellor Merz emphasized the gravity of the geopolitical situation in Europe.
“Peace in Europe has been broken. Each and every day, Russia is violating the order that we collectively adopted as a lesson from the horrors of the Second World War,” he said, referencing Moscow’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
Standing alongside Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, the German leaders reaffirmed Berlin’s commitment to NATO and regional security. President Nausėda welcomed the deployment, hailing it as a “strong signal” of unity and deterrence against potential aggression.
Though largely symbolic for now, the brigade’s full operational capacity is still years away. It is expected to be up and running by 2027, by which time Germany will have completed infrastructure development and troop deployment logistics.
Lithuania, a NATO member since 2004, shares borders with Latvia, Poland, Belarus, and Russia’s heavily militarized Kaliningrad exclave. Its strategic location has placed it on the frontline of NATO’s defence posture in the Baltics, especially since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The German move has been interpreted across Europe as a strong message of deterrence and a break from Berlin’s traditionally cautious military engagement abroad. Post-war Germany has generally avoided permanent overseas deployments, making this initiative a turning point in its defence doctrine.
As Europe recalibrates its security policies amid growing instability, Germany’s commitment to Lithuania underscores the urgency felt by NATO members to bolster their eastern defences and reinforce alliance solidarity.
Chioma Kalu
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