{"id":7199,"date":"2025-05-25T01:33:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T01:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/25\/germany-sends-permanent-troops-to-another-country-for-first-time-since-wwii\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T01:33:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T01:33:58","slug":"germany-sends-permanent-troops-to-another-country-for-first-time-since-wwii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/25\/germany-sends-permanent-troops-to-another-country-for-first-time-since-wwii\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany Sends Permanent Troops To Another Country For First Time Since WWII"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"ignorediv\">\n                                        <!-- Story Text --><br \/>\n                                                                                                                        <b class=\"place_cont\">New Delhi: <\/b><\/p>\n<p>German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Lithuania this week to inaugurate Berlin&#8217;s brigade to help protect the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It&#8217;s the first permanent foreign troop deployment from Germany since the Second World War.<\/p>\n<p>On his visit on Thursday, May 22, Mr Merz was joined by German defence minister Boris Pistorius. The ceremony officially marked the formation of an armoured brigade.<\/p>\n<p><!--MIDTABOOLA--><\/p>\n<p>Amid Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine, Mr Merz said the security of the Baltic allies was also &#8220;our security,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2025\/05\/23\/europe\/german-military-brigade-lithuania-intl-hnk-ml\" rel=\"nofollow noindex\" target=\"_blank\">CNN<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>He even called on allies to expand efforts to bolster European defences against Moscow. By strengthening its military, Berlin has signalled to allies to further invest in security, Mr Merz said.<\/p>\n<p>Lithuanian President Gitanas Naus\u0117da termed it a &#8220;historic day,&#8221; since this was the first time a German brigade was based outside its territory on a long-term basis after the 1940s.<\/p>\n<p><strong>German troops in Lithuania<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Germany has deployed its troops in Lithuania, which shares the borders with Russia&#8217;s Kaliningrad and Belarus, a key Moscow ally.<\/p>\n<p>With its new brigade, it aims for a deeper engagement in the country, where it first started moving troops in 2017. This had been a work in progress for more than a year. It later expanded into an \u201cactivation staff,\u201d which included 250 people, during last fall.<\/p>\n<p><!--#VuukleAD--><\/p>\n<p>The 45 Armored Brigade, the latest heavy combat unit, will have a total strength of around 5,000, including 4,800 German soldiers, along with 200 civilian staff. It is expected to reach its full capacity by 2027.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, dozens of military helicopters were seen roaring in the sky over the central cathedral square in Vilnius.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Defence strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The German chancellor highlighted the country was &#8220;investing massively in its armed forces.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--#MIDAD1--><\/p>\n<p>After Russia&#8217;s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz talked about raising its defence spending to the NATO target of 2% of GDP. He even made official a $113 billion special fund to modernise the Bundeswehr.<\/p>\n<p>In January, Lithuania increased its defence spending from a little over 3% to somewhere between 5% and 6% of GDP, beginning 2026.<\/p>\n<p><!--#MIDAD2--><br \/>\n                                                                                <!-- Featured Video --><br \/>\n                                                                                                                        <!-- Recommended Widget -->\n                                                                                                                    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Lithuania this week to inaugurate Berlin&#8217;s brigade to help protect the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It&#8217;s the first permanent foreign troop deployment from Germany since the Second World War. On his visit on Thursday, May 22, Mr Merz was joined by German defence [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7201,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7199\/revisions\/7201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}