Budrys expects US troops to return to Lithuania this year

Lithuania is likely to receive US troops again before the end of the year, Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said after meeting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, LRT reported.

“I would say it is very likely. I would not want to speculate about possible dates, but it should happen in the very near future,” Budrys told LRT Radio on Friday.

He said Lithuania had fulfilled its responsibilities and provided all the necessary arguments for the rotation of US forces to resume. “We are confident about the renewal of the rotation. Now we are just waiting for the announcement,” Budrys said.

The minister did not rule out the possibility that more US troops could eventually be deployed in Lithuania than before. He said the discussion could involve forces equivalent to more than one battalion or almost two battalions.

However, the exact number of US troops will depend on broader US decisions about the deployment of its forces, Budrys said. He added that a forthcoming global review of the US military presence would be important for maintaining continuity.

“The overall direction and understanding that US forces play a very important role on NATO’s eastern flank, and that Lithuania contributes its resources to this role, are clear,” he said.

Lithuania’s Defence Minister Robert Kaunas previously told LRT television that most of the new US military capabilities should reach Lithuania this year and that the country had received positive signals about the arrival of American troops.

More than 1,000 US troops and their equipment began leaving Lithuania in early June after their rotation ended. A new group had usually replaced each rotation immediately, but the latest arrival was delayed while the United States reviewed its force deployments in Europe.

US heavy battalions have rotated in Lithuania since 2019. After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Washington changed the status of its forces in Lithuania to continuous rotational deployment.