Germany deploys permanent troops beyond its borders for the first time since WWII

Germany has this week deployed a permanent military brigade beyond its borders for the first time since the end of World War II.

Germany has this week deployed a permanent military brigade beyond its borders for the first time since the end of World War II.

The historic unit dispatched to the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, was inaugurated Thursday by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said during a military ceremony in the city that “the security of our Baltic allies is also our security.”

The groundbreaking German military decision is perhaps the most significant in a steady stream of moves by European nations to bolster defenses on NATO’s eastern flank amid persistent security threats from Russia and President Donald Trump's insistence that Europe does more both to defend itself and pay for that defense.

It also comes despite persistent efforts by the Trump administration to bring to an end the Kremlin's three-year-long war in Ukraine.

Among Ukraine’s European allies, the three Baltic nations of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia — linked to NATO’s main territory only by a narrow corridor that stretches between Russia and its staunch ally Belarus known as the Suwalki Gap — are perhaps the most vulnerable to an expanded Russian assault.