Germany will increase its contribution to NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battalion in Lithuania after passing legislation to increase defense spending, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a visit to Vilnius on Tuesday, APA reports.
"We are going to increase our contribution by strengthening the eastern flank of NATO. We are going to create a strong brigade and we have discussed that together in our meetings and we are going to have to work towards this direction," Scholz said at a press conference with Baltic and German leaders. No other details were given.
Germany agreed last week to increase defense spending by €100 billion which will allow the country to increase its armed forces. The country will aim to spend 2 percent of its GDP.
"It will become one of the strongest armed forces in Europe and one of the strongest armed forces in NATO," Scholz told reporters on Tuesday. "By being part of NATO we have made a commitment to defend every centimeter of the territory of the alliance."
Scholz also defended Germany's reaction to Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine saying it is one of the top three countries sending aid to Ukraine. Germany has also applied all the sanctions agreed by the EU and is seeking alternative sources of oil and gas, he said.
"We expressed our solidarity and we are going to continue to support Ukraine by providing it with arms," he said. "This support will be provided as long as it is necessary, as long as it takes for Russia's aggression to be stopped."
The chancellor added Germany will send howitzers to Ukraine and Ukrainians are currently being trained to use the weapons.
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