Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that Russia is threatening security in Europe. His comments came during a visit to Lithuania for the official formation of Germany's first permanent military unit abroad since World War II, which aims to strengthen NATO's eastern flank.

The decision to create a 5,000-strong armored brigade in Lithuania over the next few years was taken in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Russia is a threat to all of us,” Merz said in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

The deployment of German troops is intended to deter possible Russian aggression against Lithuania and the other Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia, former Soviet republics that are members of NATO and the EU and fear they are increasingly in Moscow's sights.

Merz said Germany was determined to defend NATO territory, adding: “The security of our Baltic allies is our security.”

Although Germany has joined multinational military missions, including in Afghanistan and Mali, its pacifist tradition, stemming from the country's dark history during World War II, meant that Berlin has generally been reluctant to do more.

The creation of a permanent brigade abroad is an unprecedented move for the Bundeswehr, as Germany's armed forces are known, in the postwar period.

Merz, who became chancellor this month, attended a ceremony in Vilnius's main square that officially marked the formation of the heavy combat unit, the 45th Tank Brigade, also known as the “Lithuanian Brigade.”

The brigade, which will consist of around 4,800 soldiers and 200 civilian Bundeswehr personnel, will be deployed gradually over the next few years and should reach full operational readiness by 2027.

According to the Ministry of Defense, an advance guard of about 400 Bundeswehr personnel is already in the country.

“Anyone who challenges NATO must know that we are prepared. Anyone who threatens any of our allies must know that the entire alliance will jointly defend every inch of NATO territory,” Merz added.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda welcomed what he called the “unbreakable strength” of the alliance with Germany.

“Together, we will ensure that the peoples of Lithuania and Germany will never face the gravest test: war,” Nausėda said.

Merz, along with Nausėda and the defense ministers of Germany and Lithuania, inspected the troops as military bands played and hundreds of spectators gathered to watch the ceremony.

“For us, war is close, not somewhere far away. People are dying, we understand why — because of the Russian invasion,” said 52-year-old Vytautas Masalskis in Vilnius. | BGNES