On May 5-11 Chief of Defence of Lithuania Lieutenant General Arvydas Pocius will be conducting a work visit in the United States of America, meet with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E. Dempsey, Commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard Major General Wesley E. Craig, and other high-ranking U.S. military representatives.
At the meetings at the NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and the Pentagon Chief of Defence will address the security situation in the Baltic Region, joint exercises and perspectives of cooperation in the area of combat training.
The Lithuanian Chief of Defence is also expected to pay visits to units of the U.S. Armed Forces, meet with Lithuanian military deployed to military exercises in the U.S.A., and representatives of the Lithuanian-American Community.
The United States is the key strategic Lithuania's ally in NATO. It provides support to the Lithuanian defence planning process and extensibility of the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission. U.S. troops are sent to Lithuanian-hosted exercises on an intense basis thus supporting Lithuania's efforts to have more NATO visibility in the region, including through constantly arranged NATO exercises. A company of the Combat Team, 173rd Airborne Brigade of the U.S. Army in Europe, has been recently deployed in Lithuania to carry out tasks of collective defence.
POC: Spokesperson to the Chief of Defence of Lithuania Captain Tomas Pakalniškis, mobile phone no. 00370 657 61271, 00370 682 25359
Photo courtesy: the U.S. Armed Forces
