A company of the Hungarian Armed Force will be deployed to Lithuana as part of NATO reinforcement measures on land. The first group of Hungarian company troops along with technical equipment arrived in Lithuania on 28 October, while the rest group is due to come on 30 October later this week, Lithuania’s Defense Ministry reports.
About 140 Hungarian soldiers will form a battalion-sized unit together with assigned Lithuanian and U.S. companies for combined training and participation in exercises in Lithuania and other Baltic states. The Hungarian unit will be deployed to Lithuania for the period till the end of this year.
“There are numerous historical links between Lithuania and Hungary and I appreciate Hungary’s initiative to be the first European ally to respond to the changes in the geopolitical situation and the NATO Wales decisions and to contribute to NATO reinforcement measures on ground ,” Juozas Olekas, Lithuanian Minister of National Defence said.
Same as the U.S. allies, the Hungarian military will be stationed in Rukla, at the Duke Vaidotas Mechanised Infantry Battalion of the Mechanised Infantry Brigade Iron Wolf.
The first occasion where the Hungarian troops will join their Lithuanian and U.S. counterparts will be an international Exercise Iron Sword 2014 involving 2.5 thousand participants from 9 NATO allies which will run for two weeks at the General Silvestras Žukauskas and the Gaižiūnų Training Areas of the Lithuanian Armed Forces in early November later this year.
The Alliance has built on the security measures in the Baltic airspace (the augmentation of the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission) and sea territory (the presence of the NATO maritime groups in the Baltic Sea) in response to the changes in the regional geopolitical situation.
