On March 12 Lieutenant General Dennis Gyllensporre, Chief of Defence Staff, Swedish Armed Forces paid a visit to the Defence Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The Chief of Defence Staff of the Kingdom of Sweden and his delegation met with Commander of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Defence Staff Major General Vitalijus Vaikšnoras. General addressed the current security situation in the Baltic region, exchanged information on combat training plans for the year.
The guest delegation was briefed on the functions and objectives of the Defence Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, the officials also discussed bilateral military cooperation and regional security situation. Maj Gen Vitalijus Vaikšnoras thanked Sweden for the support to the Lithuanian Armed Forces given for over two decades now and good-natured cooperation in bilateral and various multilateral formats.
Bilateral military cooperation between Lithuania and Sweden has been developed for over two decades now. Prior to Lithuania's NATO accession in 2004 Sweden was one of the main partners helping Lithuania create its armed forces. Weaponry and equipment was transferred, projects of medical assistance, fitting up sea and coastal surveillance system, air defence battalion, and air base, to name but a few, were completed, Lithuanian officers studied at Swedish military education institutions. When Lithuania became a member of NATO the Lithuanian-Swedish cooperation entered a new level - experience was shared, information exchanged, the countries participate together in numerous multilateral projects.
In recent years forces of Lithuania and Sweden have been training in joint exercises in the Baltic region together, in the first semester of 2015 the countries were on standby for the Nordic Battle Group of the European Union. Both countries are also active participants of the Nordic-Baltic regional defence cooperation initiative (NB8) fostering defence reforms of Georgia and Ukraine.
Photo credit: Captain T. Pakalniškis
