Military power of Lithuania & NATO

Lithuania is a country located in Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea, between Latvia, Russia and Belarus, with an area of 65,300 km² (land boundries: 1,545 km). The capital of Lithuania is Vilnius. The number of inhabitants is 2,897,430.

Republic of Lithuania is a member of NATO since 2004. Contributes about 350-550 troops to the Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine joint military brigade (LITPOLUKRBRIG), which was established in 2014. Since 2017, Lithuania has hosted a German-led multinational NATO ground force battlegroup as part of the Alliance’s Enhanced Forward Presence initiative. NATO fighter aircraft are hosted at Lithuania’s Šiauliai Air Base. Lithuanian military's inventory is a mix of mostly European and US weapons and equipment.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (North Atlantic Alliance) is an intergovernmental military alliance which was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949. NATO is a system of collective security: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by others countries. NATO's main headquarters are located in Brussels. The following twelve states signed the treaty and became the founding members: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and United States. The following states joined the treaty after 1949: Greece, Germany, Turkey and Spain. Members who joined after the dissolution of the Soviet Union: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

Before and during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, several NATO countries sent army to reinforce the alliance's eastern flank. Alliance had deployed 40,000 troops along its 2,500 kilometres long Eastern flank to deter possible Russian aggression. On 5 July the North Atlantic Alliance members signed off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland and formally approved the decisions of the NATO summit.

Finland joined the alliance on 4 April 2023.