Great Britain to deploy long-term troops to Baltic States

  • 2015-10-09
  • BNS/TBT Staff/VILNIUS

October 8, 2015, saw Great Britain announce the long-term deployment of troops in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland. 

According to a report in the Financial Times, Britain plans to send a company-size contingent of fewer than 100 troops to the Baltic countries on a regular rotation basis. 

UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon is expected to announce the plan during a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

"This is further reassurance for our allies on the eastern flank of NATO, for the Baltic states and for Poland," Fallon told journalists in Brussels ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers.

"That is part of our policy of more persistent presence of the eastern side of NATO to respond to any further Russian provocation and aggression."

American rotating company-size contingents are now deployed in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland.

Other NATO also started sending more troops to the region after Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014. However, they do so irregularly.

The Baltic states want allies to deploy their troops on a regular basis based on a pre-agreed schedule.