Scholz Says Germany Prepared to Boost Baltic Troop Presence

  • Germany supports bolstering units to ‘brigade’ level
  • Move would set in motion NATO decision on eastern defense

A Bundeswehr soldier during a NATO training exercise in Lithuania.

Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

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Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany is ready to deploy more troops to the Baltics as part of a NATO effort to build up its eastern flank in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Baltic leaders had urgently pushed for an increased troop deployment to mount a stronger defense against a Russian threat -- and the German move would set the stage for a decision by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization at a summit later this month to expand its forces there.