On November 18 – 20 Chief of Defence of Lithuania General Raimundas Vaikšnoras attended the Berlin Security Conference and the Northern Europe Chiefs of Defense Conference in Berlin. Besides the security themes of critical importance to the NATO Alliance and Europe , the events also accommodates bilateral meetings with Chiefs of Defence, other important NATO officials and industry representatives on the margins.
The visit to Berlin began with receptions of the Berlin Security Conference and Inspector General of the German Armed Forces General Carsten Breuer. Among other things, talks with Chiefs of Defence and their representatives were conducted at these meetings.
On November 19 the Lithuanian delegation took part in the main panel sessions at the Berlin Security Conference. General Vaikšnoras met with Germany’s Inspector of the Army Lieutenant General Alfons Mais before the high level forum of Chiefs of Defence. Later he met with Helsing GmbH representatives of the German industry. The company works with AI technology and application to defence. Next, meetings with Kongsberg of Norway followed. The representative of Norway’s defence industry is planned to build 10 multirole ships of a new type. Finally, they met with Commander of the German Armed Forces Logistics Command Maj Gen Gerald Funke.
The high level Chiefs of Defence panel chaired by General Christian Badia, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, drew particular interest of the audience. In the panel, Chiefs of Defence of Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and, of course, Lithuania discussed national defence capabilities in the context of public resilience as acritical component of the defensive capacity. Another topic of discussion was national contributions to the deterrence mission of the NATO Alliance and readiness for defence at national-civic and military levels.
The meeting of the Northern Group Chiefs of Defence on November 20 addressed the most prominent themes of the times. As military thinking advises, any discussion should begin with a synthesis of threat analysis and intelligence. Later Chiefs of Defence addressed assistance to Ukraine and future prospects, military deterrence in the contemporary geopolitical and technological context, and neutralization of hybrid and non-conventional threats. Chief of Defence General Raimundas Vaikšnoras met with Commander of the United States European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) General Christopher Cavoli on the margins, he thanked for the continuation of the U.S. force deployment in Lithuania and discussed potential U.S. Armed Forces assistance to Lithuania in the process of purchasing the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).
The upcoming Lithuanian Armed Forces Day was marked at the embassy in Germany Wednesday. The main celebration will take place in Vilnius Saturday in the Cathedral Square. Presence on the ground of Germany, close Ally and defence partner of Lithuania, is one of the key components of deterrence and defence, the Alliance’s principal mission in the eastern flank.
