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A brigade consists of several battalions of troops.
Lithuania and other Baltic states have been consistently calling
for more troops in their region and the whole eastern NATO
flank, since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
"Lithuania, together with other countries on the eastern flank
of NATO, is seeking to strengthen the battle groups of the NATO
Enhanced Forward Presence into forward presence brigades,"
Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas was quoted as saying.
Anusauskas, who did not state the expected size of the brigades,
said decisions on reshaping the forces will be taken at a NATO
summit in Madrid in June.
The alliance has deployed four multinational battalions in 2017
of about 1,000 troops each in the three Baltic countries of
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania as well as Poland, in response to
Russia annexing Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014.
The three battalions in the Baltics were expanded this year
following the invasion, which Moscow calls a "special
operation." The battle group in Lithuania now consists of 1,600
troops, defence ministry said.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, editing by Terje Solsvik
and Tomasz Janowski)
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