VILNIUS (Sputnik) — NATO drills will be held in the Suwalki Gap, a narrow strip of land on the border between Lithuania and Poland, for the first time and will be a largely "tactical" operation, Brig. Gen. Valdemaras Rupsys, the Lithuanian Land Forces commander, said Monday.
"This operation is held for the first time. The main task of the drills is to get ready to receive allies in Lithuania. This is solely a tactical procedure: how [the allies] will cross the border through the territory controlled by our forces, how they will move on further into Lithuania," Rupsys said.
About 1,500 NATO troops from Lithuania, Poland, the United States and the United Kingdom, will participate in the drills scheduled for June 17-19. This operation is part of the annual training exercise Saber Strike.
Following the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014, NATO has been boosting its military presence in Eastern Europe, citing Russia's alleged interference in the conflict as justification for the move. Following the July 2016 summit, the Alliance announced its decision to deploy four multinational battalions to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland.
Moscow has repeatedly voiced concern over the increasing number of foreign troops and military equipment on its borders, warning that this tendency violated past NATO pledges and could lead to regional and global destabilization.
