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Lithuania calls for U.S. troops to boost Baltic states' security

19 February 2022 15:38 (UTC +04:00)

Lithuania's president called on Saturday for Baltic states' security to be boosted with U.S. troops as the region worries about Russia's massing of troops near Ukraine in what Western nations view as a threat of invasion, APA reports citing Reuters.

"The Russian military buildup at the eastern NATO border is changing the security situation," President Gitanas Nauseda said in a statement after the meeting U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Vilnius.

"It is critically important to strengthen the (Baltic states) regional security with additional troops from the United States and quicken cooperation in military procurement," he added.

Since 2019 the United States has deployed rotating groups of about 500 troops and equipment in Lithuania, and in his statement Nauseda called on Washington to make this a permament deployment.

Nauseda said earlier that Lithuania fears that Europe is "on the brink of war".