“At the upcoming NATO summit on 11 and 12 July the Netherlands will announce its intention to extend its contribution to NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence in Lithuania to the end of 2020,” the Dutch government said in a statement. “Here too, the government has opted for a contribution lasting several years, in order to render the deployment as effective as possible and provide more continuity in the military’s plans.”
Several hundred Dutch troops joined the NATO battalion in Lithuania in the spring of 2017. All in all, over 1,200 troops from six countries are serving in Lithuania.
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands visited the Rukla-based Dutch troops on Friday, accompanied by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė.
NATO battalions in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland were formed last year in response to Russia‘s threat.