News archive (2013 - 06)

On 1 July a formal ceremony took place outside the Office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania to mark the beginning of Lithuania’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The state and the historic flags of the Republic of Lithuania and the flag of the European Union were raised by members of the Honour Guard Company of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.

The formal ceremony was conducted in the presence of Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius, Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas, members of the Cabinet of Ministers, ambassadors of foreign states, as well as of other guests.

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From July 1 to 3 Defence Minister of Georgia Irakli Alasania will be conducting a visit in Lithuania by invitation of Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas.

On Monday, July 1, Minister Alasania will meet with Minister Olekas at the Ministry of National Defence, the meeting officials will sign an updated bilateral agreement between Lithuania and Georgia regarding defence cooperation.

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On July 1 Lithuania’s term of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union begins, on the same day approximately 120 Lithuanian troops will enter standby with a United Kingdom-led EU Battlegroup (EU BG). The unit tailored to respond to crises comprises approximately 2 thousand of troops from the United Kingdom, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden and the Netherlands.

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On June 26 the first members of the National Support Element (NSE-A) were formally deployed to the EU Naval Force Somalia (EU NAVFOR Somalia) off the Somali coast at a ceremony at the Logistics Command of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The ceremony was attended by Chief of the Operations Command of the Joint Staff Colonel Egidijus Karvelis, Commander of the Logistics Command Colonel Sigitas Mundris, commanders and division heads of the deployed personnel.

The NSE-A will be deployed to Djibouti (East Africa) to conduct service along with the logistic component of Operation ATALANTA. The NSE-A will be in charge of organising and coordinating logistic support to the Autonomous Vessel Protection Detachment (AVPD) and procurement of necessary items and services, from food and water to accommodation. The Lithuanian unit is planned to take part in the EU NAVFOR Somalia till the end of this year.

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On June 19 officials representing the countries preparing to standby in a United Kingdom-led EU Battlegroup (EU BG) discussed realistic situations that could call for redeploying the EU BG to operations during its standby period next semester of this year.

At the meeting the Defence Policy Directors representing the United Kingdom, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Sweden confirmed that the EU BG was ready for standby while its deployment would be determined by the security situation on the ground in “hot spots” in North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and Caucasus.

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On June 18 SFC Rolandas Rakauskas (Movement Control Centre of the Lithuanian Armed Forces) was formally deployed to the Kosovo Force (KFOR). He is the third servicemember of the Lithuanian Armed Forces who will contribute to NATO's movement control operations in ensuring a coherent withdrawal of NATO forces from Kosovo.

The servicemember will conduct a three-month service at KFOR Joint Logistic Support Group (JLSG) Headquarters in Pristina, capital of Kosovo, as air transport specialist for the Multinational Integrated Logistic Unit (MILU).

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On June 18 President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai announced that the lead for security was handed over to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) nationwide. From now on the responsibility for ensuring security in all the 43 provinces of Afghanistan will be in Afghan hands with the coalition forces moving entirely into a supporting role.

The transfer of lead responsibility to the ANSF in Ghor province which has been protected by a Lithuanian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) since 2005 took place as early as the end of 2012 but regardless of that, the 17th shift of the PRT will be performing advisory and training functions untill the closure of the PRT mission.

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On June 14 Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas presented to Director of the European Union Satellite Centre (EU SatCen) Tomaž Lovrenčič Lithuania’s priorities for the term of the EU Presidency and Lithuania’s contribution to the enhancement of the Common Security and Defence Policy.

“In addition to the dispute over the measures facilitating financial stability of the EU, currently prevailing in the public EU agenda, we will devote our term of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for closer cooperation with the Eastern Neighbourhood countries as well as for the enhancement of the EU energy security”, Minister Juozas Olekas said at the meeting.

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On June 14 Director of the EU Satellite Centre (EU SatCen) Tomaž Lovrenčič will be conducting a visit to the Ministry of National Defence. The guest will present to Defence Minister Juozas Olekas, Political Director Dr. Vaidotas Urbelis, other representatives of the Ministry of National Defence, Lithuanian Space Association, Space Science and Technology Institute (SSTI) and the Ministry of Agriculture the EU SatCen activities and will discuss the possibility for Lithuania to deepen the cooperation with this EU agency. Copernicus and Galileo, security of space programmes of the EU, as well as the role of the EU SatCen in their implementation are also expected to be discussed.

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On June 13 Political Director of the Ministry of National Defence Dr. Vaidotas Urbelis underlined while attending an EU ministerial meeting on defence in Berlin that fundamental solutions on the future of the EU Battlegroups (BGs) were to be found ahead of the European Council discussion coming up in December. The attendees of the meeting agreed that the concept of the EU Battlegroups was facing a great pressure – the units that had been introduced 9 years ago had not been deployed even once ever since. Moreover, member states of the European Union were not always successful in generating two EU BGs for a simultaneous standby and sometimes made do with just one. According to the Lithuanian Director for Defence Policy, the situation had to be changed given the European Union was considering taking up a more responsibility in international security.

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