On January 7-8 Chief of Defence Staff of Spain General Admiral Fernando García Sánchez and his delegation are conducting a formal visit in Lithuania. On the first day of the visit the distinguished guest will atten the handover of the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission at the Lithuanian Air Force Base in Šiauliai and meet with Spanish troops taking over the mission. Subsequently, General Admiral F. G. Sánchez will be formally welcomed and attend official meetings in Vilnius on January 8.
While at the Ministry of National Defence, the guest will meet with Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas, Chief of Defence of Lithuania Lieutenant General Jonas Vytautas Žukas and other representatives of the Ministry of National Defence and the Lithuanian Armed Forces.
During the meetings Chief of Defence of Spain will be familiarised with the regional security situation, informational threats, capabilities and readiness of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, deployments to multinational missions and exercises, and prospects of developing defence capabilities.
Other points expected to be discussed are bilateral military cooperation, NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission, rotational land forces sent in by NATO allies, the NATO Force Integration Unit (NFIU) and participation in the NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF).
The visit will conclude with Spanish Chief of Defence Staff's paying tribute to the memory of Lithuania's freedom fighters by laying flowers at the Memorial of the Freedom Fighters of Lithuania in Antakalnis Cemetery.
Chief of Defence Staff Gen Adm F. G. Sánchez who has over 120 thousand troops at his command, is accompanied by the Chief of Operations Command, Chief of Air Combat Command, Army Sergeant Major and the Defence Attaché of Spain to Lithuania.
Defence cooperation between Lithuanian and Spanish militaries
Lithuania and Spain have been developing bilateral defence cooperation for 15 years. It is of a rather low intensity because of geographical remoteness and different security challenges the countries are facing. In the beginning the cooperation was limited to that of both countries' paratroopers (qualification improvement courses and competitions). In 2008 the cooperation was expanded: Spain has been training fighter aircraft operators of the Lithuanian Air Force ever since (27 of them have undergone training so far).
On the other hand, there a many contact points for Lithuanian and Spanish militaries when it comes to NATO format. The Spanish Air Force was conducting the NATO Air Policing Mission in the Baltic States from Šiauliai in 2006 and from Amari (Estonia) in 2015. On January 7, 2016, Spain deployed its third rotation of the mission to Šiauliai.
Last October Lithuanian and Spanish troops were training shoulder to shoulder in Trident Juncture 2015, NATO's largest exercise since 2002, in Spain. Lithuania's contingent in the exercise included approx. 200 soldiers of the Lithuanian Land Force with roughly 50 units of military materiel, Lithuanian Navy's MCM ships LNS Skalvis (M53) with crew, logistics, military police and military medical personnel.
-Biography of F. G. Sánchez: www.emad.mde.es/EMAD/mando/index.html
Source of the photo: www.emad.mde.es
