Rotation of Czech troops in NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence

Czech artillery forces have returned home after a year of service at the Rukla base in Lithuania, where they operated in a German-led NATO mission bolstering the alliance’s eastern flank. They have been replaced by a chemical unit from Liberec which will serve in Lithuania for a year. This is not the first time the chemical unit has operated in the Baltics within the alliance's Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) and its integration is expected to be smooth.

NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence involves four battle groups in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, each led by a different nation - the United States, Germany, Canada and Britain. The NATO mission was approved at the 2016 Warsaw Summit as a response to Russia's annexation of Crimea.