The U.S. has resumed deploying troops to Lithuania. Following the arrival of another 200 service members on October 27, nearly a third of the new American contingent will be stationed in the country.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda announced this.
About 120 U.S. service members are currently in the country. The first members of the U.S. contingent arrived on October 13, and Washington is expected to complete the deployment by mid-November.
The units are stationed at the Pabradė training ground, where they will join joint exercises with the Lithuanian army and other NATO allies.
An official ceremony marking the start of the new rotation’s service will be held in the country in November.
The resumption of the U.S. military presence comes after several months of uncertainty. As Militarnyi previously reported, in early June, more than 1,000 U.S. service members began withdrawing from Lithuania along with military equipment.
A distinctive feature of this rotation was that the new forces did not arrive until the previous contingent had completed its tour of duty.
The hiatus in troop deployment raised concerns about Washington’s future plans in the region.
However, the Lithuanian authorities later received confirmation that the mission would continue.
The U.S. has regularly deployed battalion-sized units to Lithuania since 2019. Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. presence has taken on a continuous rotational character.
At the same time, Vilnius is seeking to transition from a temporary allied deployment to a permanent military presence. In early October, Donald Trump stated that Washington would consider the possibility of establishing a military base on Lithuanian territory.
The Lithuanian government, for its part, stated it was ready to finance the necessary infrastructure and provide the conditions for a long-term U.S. troop presence.
Source: Militaryni
