U.S. troops to stay longer in Lithuania, says defence minister

[September 22, 2020]    PABRADE MILITARY TRAINING GROUNDS, Lithuania (Reuters) - Lithuania's defence minister said on Tuesday a new battalion of U.S. troops, including tanks and armoured vehicles, will be deployed in Lithuania in November and will stay until mid-June 2021.

 Lithuanian Minister of Defence Raimundas Karoblis attends a ceremony to welcome the German battalion being deployed to Lithuania in Rukla, Lithuania February 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

It will replace a similar deployment, which arrived on Sept. 4 for a two-month stay, near the Belarus border.

"This is not connected at all to the situation in Belarus," Defence Minister Raimundas Karoblis told reporters.

The U.S. battalion currently deployed in Lithuania arrived earlier and is staying longer than the government had indicated before the outbreak of protests in neighbouring Belarus.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, editing by Gwladys Fouche)

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