Only a tight land corridor in between, called the Suwałki Gap, connects the Baltic states to the rest of NATO territory, making Lithuania particularly exposed in case of a Russian attack.

[1] In the aftermath of the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, NATO established the Enhanced Forward Presence and deployed the multinational battlegroups to the Baltic states in 2017.

[3] However, in June 2023, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius announced that Germany would form a new combat brigade and permanently deploy it to Lithuania.

[2][4] In December 2023, Lithuanian Minister of Defense Arvydas Anušauskas and his German counterpart Boris Pistorius signed a formal agreement on the planned deployment.

Further, a third of the German soldiers are expected to bring their families to Lithuania,[6] requiring not only military infrastructure, but also civilian facilities such as German-language kindergartens and schools.