"We have managed to achieve what we have been aiming at: the NATO Military Committee agreed to establish multinational headquarters in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. This is the piece of military advice the Military Committee will convey to the North Atlantic Council as soon as next month," Chief of Defence of Lithuania Major General Jonas Vytautas Žukas said after returning from Brussels after the NATO Military Committee meeting of January 21-22.
Given political conditions are favourable, the headquarters will be founded as soon as this year with the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR) in charge of the process and, subsequently, of coordination of their work. In the NATO chain of command the new headquarters will report to the Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin, Poland.
"The NATO headquarters in Lithuania will serve as a link among national forces, allied forces deployed in Lithuania, and the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. This will be not only a great measure of deterrence but also a capacity to provide command and control for allied forces in Lithuania in case of necessity, thus increasing our defence," the Chief of Defence assured.
The designated location for the NATO headquarters in Lithuania is near the Joint Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces (Kapsukų str., Vilnius) where it will be accommodated once the relevant decisions are in place. Half of its staff is planned to be contributed by Lithuania and the other half - by NATO allies.
"The NATO Military Committee has not agreed on advance deployment of equipment in Lithuania and other Baltic States yet, but I think this point will be looked into in the future," Major General J.V.Žukas said.
The NATO Military Committee meeting also approved plans for establishing the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF). The VJTF, agreed to include a joint brigade-sized unit made up of land, air, maritime and special operations components, is expected to reach Full Operational Capability in 2016.
Also, the necessity for a revision of the NATO Strategic Concept and an assessment of emerging threats, namely, the issue of whether NATO has enemies, was discussed. In case it is stated that NATO does have adversaries, it would call for further analysis on NATO's capabilities to counter them.
The NATO Military Committee meeting also addressed security situation in Southern Europe, Middle East ("the Islamic State"), North Africa and the North East.
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The NATO Military Committee is the highest NATO structure of military command which reports to the North Atlantic Council, the Defence Planning Committee, and the Nuclear Planning Group. It adopts strategic military decisions and develops military advice to the North Atlantic Council in charge of taking decisions at political level.
The top level meetings of the NATO Military Committee are attended by the NATO Chiefs of Defence while day-to-day work is done my military representatives delegated by NATO allies.
The NATO Military Committee meets at the Chiefs of Defence level three times a year. Two of such sessions take place in Brussels and one is hosted by one of NATO allies on a rotating basis.
More information about the event: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_116600.htm
Source of photo: http://www.nato.int/
Spokesperson to the Chief of Defence of Lithuania Captain Mindaugas Neimontas
Office phone no: 00370 278 5091, mobile phone no: 00370 8 682 25359,e-mail: mindaugas.neimontas@mil.lt
