FM says Lithuanian troops could be deployed to Sweden’s Gotland

Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis hinted Lithuanian soldiers could be deployed to Gotland, Sweden’s largest island in the Baltic Sea, to protect it from Russia.

“This is something for the army to discuss, but if it happened, I would approve that,” he said in an interview with Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet.

The Turkish parliament last week ratified Sweden’s membership of NATO and Stockholm is now waiting for the last member of the alliance, Hungary, to follow.

Sweden has changed course and started to boost its defence following Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. The country reintroduced compulsory military service in 2017 and reopened its garrison in Gotland in January 2018.