On July 1-3 Commander of the Polish Land Forces Lieutenant General Zbigniew Glowienka and a delegation were conducting a formal visit in Lithuania. On July 2 the guest met with Commander of the Lithuanian Land Force Major General Almantas Leika and Commander of the National Defence Volunteer Force Colonel Romualdas Moldaris, a meeting with Chief of defence Of Lithuania Lieutenant General Arvydas Pocius at the Ministry of National Defence followed. The aim of the visit was to exchange information on relevant issues of the Lithuanian and the Polish Land Forces and to discuss plans and perspectives of further cooperation.
At the meeting at the Lithuanian Land Force HQ mission, structure, weaponry and technology assets used, combat training and multinational commitments were presented to the Polish delegation. The guests, in their turn, responded by a by a briefing on relevant matters too. In the follow-on discussions contribution of land forces to multinational exercise ANAKONDA which will take place in Poland next year and exercise SABERSTRIKE in Latvia were addressed as well as a possibility to arrange joint distance battalion-level staff courses via computerised tactical training system.
Lithuanian Land Force Commander took interest in Poland's experience of involvement in the activities of Finabel Interoperability Centre of European Armies. Lithuania is still in the process of considering the possibility to join the organisation unifying land forces of 17 states (EU members) organisation.
Lithuanian and Polish Land Force Commanders also discussed military aspects of formation of a joint Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian brigade LITPOLUKRBRIG. Commander of the international Lublin Brigade, the unit which will be used as a basis for the trilateral LITPOLUKRBRIG, Colonel Dariusz Sobotka briefed the meeting Lithuanian and Polish military representatives on the status quo the formation of LITPOLBRIG staff was in, the system of combat training and scheduled events. It was highlighted at the meeting that everything was in place for practical establishment of the Brigade apart from the signing of the treaty regarding the establishment of the LITPOLUKRBAT scheduled for this year.
In the end of the meeting cooperation of the Polish and the Lithuanian Land Forces with the U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR) was discussed: lessons learnt and experience was shared and collective events planned were discussed.
On July 3 the Polish delegation paid a visit to the Juozas Lukša Training Centre of the Lithuanian Land Force (Rukla) and the Mechanised Infantry Brigade Iron Wolf.
The following meeting of Polish and Lithuanian Land Force Commanders in planned this August in Poland on the Polish Armed Forces Day and simultaneously with the annual pilgrim march.
Cooperation between the Lithuanian Land Force and the Polish Land Forces across a variety of areas and joint participation in various projects has been going on for more than a decade. In the first half of 2010 military personnel of King Mindaugas Battalion conducted standby in a Polish-led European Union Battlegroup (EUBG), in the second half of the same year an EOD unit of Juozas Vitkus Engineer Battalion was assigned to the NATO Response Force (NRF) in composition of a Polish EOD Company. A joint Lithuanian-Polish battalion LITPOLBAT was formed and functioned in 1996-2007 by agreement states. Lithuanian military participated in the multinational mission in Kosovo (NATO KFOR) along with Polish troops in 1999-2009, and in 2003-2005 - in the multinational mission in Iraq (in composition of LITDET). For several years in a row Lithuanian officers have been serving in the NATO Multinational Corps Northeast (MCNE) based in Szczecin.
22.07.2013
