{"id":244431,"date":"2025-07-07T05:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T05:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/244431\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T05:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T05:04:13","slug":"german-president-pledges-support-for-lithuania-during-vilnius-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/244431\/","title":{"rendered":"German president pledges support for Lithuania during Vilnius visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-ad__placeholder__logo\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/website\/images\/logos\/logo-euronews-grey-6-180x22.svg\" width=\"180\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>During a visit to Vilnius on Sunday, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier pledged his country&#8217;s support in maintaining Lithuania&#8217;s freedom, stating that &#8220;your security is our security&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Lithuania and Germany stand together for the freedom of Ukraine, for the principle of self-determination, for European unity, as partners in the EU and NATO,&#8221; said Steinmeier.<\/p>\n<p>Lithuanian President Gitanas Naus\u0117da welcomed his German counterpart on Sunday and took to social media platform X to express his gratitude for the visit. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The president&#8217;s visit is a strong sign of the enduring friendship between Lithuania and Germany, based on shared values and strategic partnership,&#8221; said Naus\u0117da.<\/p>\n<p>The two countries have recently strengthened their military ties as Germany&#8217;s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz looks to deliver on his campaign promises of bolstering continental security in the wake of Russian threats stemming from its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. <\/p>\n<p>From 2027, approximately 5,000 German soldiers from an armoured brigade will be permanently stationed in Lithuania to protect NATO&#8217;s eastern flank and the Baltic country from Russia, with which it shares an almost 300-kilometre border.<\/p>\n<p>With Russia&#8217;s ongoing war in Ukraine, many in Lithuania, which was once a Soviet republic together with the rest of the Baltic states, believe they could become the next target of Russian President Vladimir Putin&#8217;s expansionist mission.<\/p>\n<p>Steinmeier acknowledged Lithuania&#8217;s concerns, noting that &#8220;here in Lithuania you know that neither freedom nor peace is guaranteed.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Freedom is not a condition. Freedom is a task,&#8221; he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ADVERTISEMENT During a visit to Vilnius on Sunday, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier pledged his country&#8217;s support in maintaining&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824,1114,5549],"class_list":{"0":"post-244431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-lithuania","12":"tag-safety"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114810209264724732","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}