Germany is committed to the security of the Baltics, Scholz says

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated on Monday (6 May) his commitment to defend the Baltics in case of a Russian assault amid increasing hybrid attacks by Moscow against European countries.

“The security of our Baltic allies is our security,” Scholz told a press conference with three Baltic heads of state in Riga.

“An attack on you would also be an attack on us,” he said.

The Baltics themselves have seen an increase in Russian aggression with plans to double their troops near their border and an increasing amount of GPS jamming, leading to distributions of air traffic. Germany itself revealed last Friday that it had recently been hit by Russian cyber-attacks, alongside Czechia.  

While Scholz was on his way to watch troop exercises in Lithuania, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered tactical nuclear drills in the vicinity of the Ukrainian border.

In Pabradė, eastern Lithuania, President Gitanas Nausėda called for a faster establishment of a heavy combat brigade as “we don’t have the luxury of wasting even a minute”.

Scholz’s renewed commitment comes with the clear message “to substantially strengthen NATO’s eastern flank”.

Berlin is currently establishing a base for a brigade of 4,800 soldiers near the Polish-Lithuanian border, who will be stationed in Pabradė by 2027, its biggest contingent of troops stationed abroad to date. 

Russia’s deputy defence minister, Viktor Goremykin, recently stated that his troops would be able to capture within hours the strategic Suwalki corridor, an area between Lithuania and Poland that connects Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, German media reported.

In such a scenario, the 4,800 German soldiers, equalling almost one-third of Lithuania’s active army, would be some of the first troops to confront such a threat.

[By Alexandra Brzozowski/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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