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On May 2 Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas and Secretary of State for Defence of the United Kingdom Phillip Hammond discussed regional security, NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission and others relevant issues of bilateral and multilateral military cooperation at a meeting at the Šiauliai Air Base of the Lithuanian Air Force.

J.Olekas underlined at the meeting the importance of collective defence, particularly in the light of the unrest in the vicinity of the Baltic States. “Collective defence is the ultimate measure of deterrence and the increased number of NATO fighter aircraft in the Baltic skies is a strong evidence of Alliance interoperability,” J.Olekas said at the meeting.

Minister J.Olekas presented to his counterpart of the United Kingdom Lithuania’s actions in strengthening defence sector. Primarily Lithuanian Minister pointed out the agreement of Lithuania’s parliamentary parties to increase defence spending to 2 pct. of GDP till 2020.

“We are planning to use the increase of the national defence budget for modernising the Lithuanian Armed Forces with a focus on the Land Force, Special Operations Forces, exercises and air defence capabilities,” J.Olekas said.

Minister also stressed that Lithuania was making every efforts to step up the Host Nation Support Lithuania was rendering for the air capabilities conducting NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission and to ensure that all infrastructure necessary for exercises of the allied air assets and air personnel was in place.

While addressing the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission Minister J.Olekas thanked Secretary of State for Defence of the UK Ph. Hammond for the deployment of four Eurofighter Typhoon  fighter jets of the Royal Air Force that strengthened the mission as of May 1.

In his turn, UK’s Secretary of State for Defence reaffirmed the commitment of the United Kingdom to defend its allies.

Lithuanian Minister of Defence notified his counterpart of the intent of the Baltic countries to further increase the appeal of the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission among the allies which was expected to motivate the United Kingdom to deploy its capabilities to the mission in the future as well.

According to the J.Olekas, the deployment of British, as well other allies’ capabilities in the Baltic States was a clear signal that Lithuania could always anticipate protection of the strong members of the Alliance.

The Secretary of State for Defence of the United Kingdom underlined the appreciation of Lithuania’s contribution to ongoing NATO operations and the modernisation projects underway in the Lithuanian Armed Forces and its infrastructure.

Military cooperation of Lithuania and the United Kingdom growing in intensity in the recent years in such areas as standbys for the European Union Battlegroups, acquisition of mine countermeasures assets, and cooperative training events, is an evidence of both states’ strong efforts to further strengthen initiatives of cooperation.

Lithuanian-UK’s cooperation in defence area is based on an updated agreement regarding defence cooperation and military relations endorsed in Dublin, Ireland, 25 January 2013.

Photo credit: Antanas Gedrimas