Ollongren spoke to the country’s president, Gitanas Nausėda, today at the NATO barracks in Lithuania’s Rukla. “The possibility of conflict is literally close at hand, as your country shares a border with Belarus and Russia,” the D66 minister said. “For the Netherlands it is a different story. We have long taken peace for granted, but that has changed a lot.”
During Ollongren’s visit – which has been kept secret until the last moment – the Minister and the Commander of the Armed Forces Onno Eichelsheim commemorated the five-year anniversary of the NATO mission in the Baltic country. The command of some 1,200 NATO soldiers was handed over to a new commander in a ceremony. The Netherlands has been sending about 250 soldiers to Lithuania since 2017: a fresh batch arrives every six months.
Puzzle
At the end of last year, the cabinet announced that the Dutch deployment in the mission will be increased to 350 soldiers in the coming period. That is not immediately arranged: Defense has a large number of vacancies, which makes it quite a puzzle to get enough platoons on their feet. Three weeks ago, the 13th Light Brigade arrived from Oirschot in Brabant, including armored vehicles and a reconnaissance vehicle. Around the barracks in Rukla, more than an hour’s drive from the capital Vilnius, the Dutch practice with Germans and Norwegians, among others.
The Germans – who command NATO forces in Rukla – announced this week that they are sending some 350 soldiers to Lithuania in addition to their 600 soldiers. “If Russia really wants less NATO along its borders, they are now getting the opposite,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said of the expansion.
East side of NATO
The main objective of the mission: to make sure that the Russians don’t think of attacking the eastern side of the NATO alliance. “Together we are stronger and we can resist the threat to peace,” said Ollongren. It is the minister’s first visit to Dutch military personnel abroad.