VILNIUS, April 23 (RIA Novosti) – US troops will arrive this week in Lithuania for a series of training exercises, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said Wednesday.
“In the near future, an additional unit of US ground forces will be in Lithuania, this will happen this week. US and Lithuanian troops will participate in joint exercises to train to protect the territory of Lithuania if a real threat emerges,” the president told journalists.
Lithuania will host US troops from the Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade, Grybauskaite said without giving further details on the drills.
The Pentagon announced Tuesday that Washington will send 600 soldiers to four countries in eastern Europe for exercises that will begin in Poland and later move to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Washington has called for more frequent military exercises in the Baltic countries, but said it had no plans to deploy a permanent contingent to the region.
