{"id":40367,"date":"2021-01-11T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T09:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/01\/11\/lithuanias-defense-minister-mission-accomplished-not-yet\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:17:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:17:04","slug":"lithuanias-defense-minister-mission-accomplished-not-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/outlook\/2021\/01\/11\/lithuanias-defense-minister-mission-accomplished-not-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Lithuania\u2019s defense minister: Mission accomplished? Not yet."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cOne for the books.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is how I would describe 2020<\/a>. With all its trials and tribulations, last year was particularly instructive for the security and defense community. We were starkly reminded of two laws in threat management. First, threats are quick to emerge and they rarely give notice. Second, our job is to deal with them just as quickly, and we can only do that with proper readiness and capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These fundamentals are true for any kind of threats \u2014 military included \u2014 and are especially pertinent to deterrence and defense efforts in the Baltic region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last fall, Lithuania and its neighboring allies had the displeasure of once again witnessing how rapidly and unpredictably threats can materialize, when the Russian-Belarusian exercise Slavic Brotherhood-2020 was swiftly scaled up six times at the very last minute without any adequate transparency measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given these modalities, the task is to make deterrence in the Baltics airtight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speed \u2014 of our forces and of our decisions \u2014 is one aspect to it. As challenging as 2020 was, we still made great strides toward this goal. We tested and further honed rapid reinforcement capabilities and built interoperability in two major allied exercises: Brilliant Jump and Tobruq Legacy. Lithuania also became a full-fledged owner of the NASAMS air defense system that significantly bolsters our air defense and serves as a critical enabler for rapidly flowing the allied forces into the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, effective deterrence requires a physical allied presence to make sure the impact of our decisions and forces is delivered both rapidly and powerfully. In the case of the Baltics \u2014 countries with no strategic depth \u2014 deterrence is as much about posture as it is about speed. Oftentimes, posture is the very precursor of speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NATO\u2019s Enhanced Forward Presence forces in the region have moved the alliance in the right direction. In Lithuania, Germany\u2019s superb leadership as well as the steadfast dedication of the contributing allies \u2014 Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway \u2014 have been ardently advancing the efforts. Nonetheless, as instrumental as these forces have been in reducing the risk of conflict in the Baltics, the mission has not been fully accomplished yet. Russia\u2019s anti-access\/area denial arrangements would still offer it a time-distance advantage in the early stages of a conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An American presence in the Baltics is the solution to this conundrum. Since November, Lithuania has been hosting the third six-month rotation of U.S. armored battalion forces. This is the latest installment of America\u2019s efforts to bolster allied deterrence on Lithuanian soil. However, the U.S. presence would provide the most valuable results were it on a permanent basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\t