Lithuania seeks U.S. military deployment

Lithuania is working with the United States over the possibility to deploy American military equipment in the Baltic country, local media reported on Monday.

Lithuanian Minister of National Defense Juozas Olekas made the remarks on Monday when responding to media reports that U.S. army will soon start surveys on possible locations for the deployment of tanks and other military hardware in countries including Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, Lithuanian National radio broadcaster LRT reported.

According to Olekas, part of those military equipment will be deployed in Lithuania.

"We work a lot with American allies in order to deploy this hardware rationally, according to our needs," said Olekas in an interview to the LRT.

"We will inform later on, what are those equipment and where will they be deployed," added the Minister.

Olekas was reluctant to comment on the type of possible military hardware and the size of the forces deployed, but insisted Lithuania is making efforts to assist the allies to find locations that are suitable for the deployment of their equipment and personnel.

Stars and Stripes, a Pentagon newspaper, reported U.S. Army will carry out surveys in the next few weeks in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria in order to examine possible locations for U.S. military hardware.

"Maybe it's a company, maybe it's a whole battalion, we don't know yet until we do the survey," Lieutenant General Frederick Hodges, the chief of U.S. Army Europe, told the newspaper.

U.S. troops has been attending permanent rotations and military exercises in the Baltic countries and Poland since last year in response to changing geopolitical situation in the region and in order to strengthen NATO military presence there. Endit