Berlin is making good on its commitment to permanently station 4,000 soldiers to Lithuania, a move that has been described as a decision of “reason and reliability”. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius acknowledged that infrastructure and training facilities need to be constructed, but insisted that Germany will be putting a “robust brigade” in the Baltic country. Pistorius had traveled to Lithuania to watch NATO training drills with military alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

The announcement has been met with support from both Germany’s governing coalition and its main opposition, as well as from Foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter, a lawmaker from the center-right CDU. However, the German government has also stipulated that the alliance’s supreme commander in Europe, known as SACEUR, must retain the ability to make a call on moving troops around. The decision to deploy troops comes shortly after a short-lived mutiny in Russia by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner. However, a spokesman for the German defense ministry said that the planning is “solely with the preparations of the Vilnius summit and is not linked to the events of the past weekend”.

The move has been seen as a show of solidarity and strength from NATO in the face of a potential threat from Russia. The plans for a permanent deployment in Lithuania have been controversial but are made all the more important in the current climate of global affairs and regional tensions. The deployment of German troops in Lithuania is certainly a step in the right direction for the region and should bring some much-needed stability to the Baltic region.