VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Chancellor Friedrich Merz inaugurated a groundbreaking German brigade in Lithuania that is meant to help protect NATO’s eastern flank and declared Thursday that “the security of our Baltic allies is also our security” as worries about Russian aggression persist.

He said Berlin’s strengthening of its own military sends a signal to its allies to invest in security.

The stationing in Lithuania marks the first time that a German brigade is being based outside Germany on a long-term basis since World War II. “This is a historic day,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said after meeting Merz. “This is a day of trust, responsibility and action.”

German brigade to be at full strength in 2027

Germany has had troops in Lithuania — which borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and Moscow-allied Belarus — since 2017, as part of efforts to secure NATO’s eastern fringe, but the new brigade deepens its engagement significantly.

An advance party started work on setting it up just over a year ago and expanded into an “activation staff” of about 250 people last fall. The 45 Armored Brigade is expected to be up to its full strength of about 5,000 by the end of 2027, with troops stationed at Rukla and Rudninkai.

Dozens of military helicopters roared over the central cathedral square in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, as the inauguration wrapped up on a rainy Thursday afternoon, with hundreds of troops and spectators attending. Merz told the event that “protecting Vilnius is protecting Berlin.”

The deployment in Lithuania has been taking shape as Germany works to strengthen its military overall after years of neglect as NATO members scramble to increase defense spending, spurred by worries about further potential Russian aggression and pressure from Washington.

Beefing up the Bundeswehr

Merz said that, beyond the new brigade, “Germany is investing massively in its own armed forces.”

“With this, we also want to send a signal to our allies: let us now invest with determination in our own security,” he added. “Together with our partners, we are determined to defend alliance territory against every — every — aggression. The security of our Baltic allies is also our security.”

Shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to increase Germany’s defense spending to the current NATO target of 2% of gross domestic product and announced the creation of a 100 billion-euro ($113-billion) special fund to modernize the Bundeswehr.

Germany met that target thanks to the fund, but it will be used up in 2027. Even before it took office earlier this month, the new governing coalition pushed plans through parliament to enable higher defense spending by loosening strict rules on incurring debt.

Merz, the first chancellor to have served in the Bundeswehr himself, told parliament last week that “the government will in the future provide all the financing the Bundeswehr needs to become the strongest conventional army in Europe.”

Lithuania to spend more than 5% on defense

Host Lithuania said in January that it would raise its defense spending to between 5% and 6% of GDP starting next year, from a bit over 3%. That made it the first NATO nation to vow to reach a 5% goal called for by U.S. President Donald Trump.

A plan is in the works for all allies to aim to spend 3.5% of GDP on their defense budgets by 2032, plus an extra 1.5% on potentially defense-related things like infrastructure — roads, bridges, airports and seaports.

Merz said in Lithuania that those figures “seem sensible to us, they also seem reachable — at least in the time span until 2032 that has been stipulated.”

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said earlier this week that the plan is to increase defense spending by 0.2 percentage points each year for five to seven years.

Merz has plunged into diplomatic efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine since taking office earlier this month.

“We stand firmly by Ukraine, but we also stand together as Europeans as a whole — and, whenever possible, we play in a team with the U.S.,” he said.

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Moulson reported from Berlin.