On January 29-30 Chief of Defence of Lithuania Major General Jonas Vytautas Žukas will attend the annual Nordic-Baltic Chiefs of Defence meeting in Kongsvinger (Norway).
The Nordic-Baltic CHODs will be discussing security and defence situation in the region, implementation of the NATO Readiness Action Plan, future combined military exercises, perspectives of cooperation in cyber defence, air space surveillance, capacity building, and other areas.
Chiefs of Defence meet in Nordic-Baltic format once per year in a different country. Last year the meeting took place in Latvia, Malpils.
Lithuania launched defence cooperation with Nordic countries in 1994 by signing the first military cooperation agreement with Denmark which was already a NATO ally at that time. When the Lithuanian Armed Forces was re-established, Scandinavian countries assisted Lithuania in modernising weaponry and training soldiers and military units, a considerable number of Lithuanian military graduated from various long-term qualification improvement courses in Scandinavian countries, the Iron Wolf Brigade has been assigned to the Danish Division and taking part in joint training events since 2006. The Nordic countries are also supporting various trilateral Baltic military cooperation projects. Norway and Denmark deployed capabilities to the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission, roughly 40 Lithuanian soldiers are on standby with the Swedish-led European Union Nordic Battle Group (NBG) this year.
Spokesperson to the Chief of Defence of Lithuania Captain Mindaugas Neimontas
Office phone no.: 00370 5 278 5091, mobile phone no. 00370 682 25359, email: mindaugas.neimontas@mil.lt
Photo credit: Alfredas Pliadis (MoD archive)
