German President seeks defense and arms industry ties on Baltic visit
Lithuanians to make landmines, Latvians deport leftist activist
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a largely ceremonial head of state has been making the rounds of the Baltic countries of Lithuania and Latvia, which are familiar “stomping grounds” to the senior German politician who has been here when he was Germany’s Foreign Minister.
In the Lithuanian capital Vilnius Steinmeier and Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda on July 6 affirmed their support for Ukraine and praised their continued close cooperation as NATO allies as Germany deploys a full brigade in the Baltic nation while Lithuania makes a major German arms purchase and prepares to host an ammunition plant.
The Lithuanian president noted that his country had placed "the largest Lithuanian contract in the history of Lithuania” for Leopard 2 tanks. Nauseda also mentioned the the construction of the ammunition plant by German defense manufacturer Rheinmetall soon to begin in Lithuania.”
Last December, Lithuania placed an order for 44 Leopard 2 A8 tanks valued at EUR 950 million, including spare parts and logistics services.
In November, Rheinmetall signed a contract valued at EUR 180 million to build a plant in Lithuania making 155 mm artillery ammunition that will begin operations from mid-2026.
Speaking to journalists at a joint press conference with Steinmeier, Nauseda said the Rheinmetall plant was “a project that will strengthen both our country and the security and defense potential of the entire region."
On Ukraine, Nauseda said that Kyiv must win the war against Russia and that Lithuania has, since the conflict began in 2022, given EUR 1 billion in military aid to Ukraine.
Steinmeier, addressing questions from German journalists said that Germany should continue to discuss re-introducing military conscription should the armed forces fail to recruit sufficient volunteers.
“Whether we will be able to do without conscription in the future, I cannot say at the present time. That is why I am very much in favor of continuing the debate that has begun on the reintroduction of compulsory military service,” he said.
Steinmeier noted that since Germany ended conscription in 2011, it had closed training facilities and reduced the number of instructors, so that conscription could not be reintroduced overnight.
However, the German president stressed that “we have to continue this discussion, because in the event that the volunteers do not fill the gaps, then in view of the changed security situation in Europe, we will have no choice but to return to conscription.”
Nauseda warns of migrant flow through Latvia
Asked about Poland’s plans to institute border controls with Germany and Lithuania to prevent the flow of illegal migrants, Nauseda said:"Lithuania is now managing these migration flows quite well. We have about 900 migrants who have actually been pushed back to their country of origin. And I would say that if there is a migration flow through Lithuania, then it is a small flow.”
At the same time, the Lithuanian head of state said there had been problems with migrants coming through neighboring Latvia.
Migration is also taking place from the north, namely from the Latvian side. And about 350 or 400 people who have now been seized in Lithuania, they came from the Latvian side and they were then arrested in Lithuania or in Poland,” Nauseda said.
Winding up his visit to Lithuania on July 7, Steinmeier visited the former summer home of Nobel Prize winning German novelist Thomas Mann in Nida, a village on the Baltic seashore.
Germany seeks defense industry cooperation with Latvia
Steinmeier went on from Lithuania to Latvia and held a press conference in the capital Riga on July 8 after visiting a German warship participating in patrols monitoring the so-called shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea.
Defense industry cooperation between Germany and Latvia is at an early but promising stage, the German president told journalists in the Latvian capital Riga.
“In terms of the (German) defense industry with regard to Latvia, we are at the start of a process prior to forming close relationships,” Steinmeier said, noted that more extensive talks were planned at a working lunch with top Latvian officials and German defense company representatives, including Rheinmetall, who are accompanying the Germany head of state on his visit to Lithuania and Latvia.
An AI image of the classic Latvian “blue” cow and a German shepherd building military equipment together.
.Steinmeier mentioned that Germany had investments in some 1200 Latvian companies and both countries needed further cooperation in defense-related production and procurement to make up for shortfalls in capacity across Europe.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Steinmeier, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs said that in 2023, Latvia had already signed its largest EUR 600 million military procurement deals with Germany’s Diehl Defense for IRIS-T short range air defense missile systems and was working on finding ways to involve Latvian companies in the building and installation of this system.
“We are working with this company so that more elements and components with added value could be made by Latvian companies,” he said.
Steinmeier and Rinkēvičš held the press conference at Riga Castle, the Latvian president’s official office after visiting the German Navy corvette Braunschweig anchored nearby in Riga’s harbor. The German ship is part of NATO’s Baltic Sentry patrol to monitor undersea infrastructure.
Lithuania prepares to make landmines, also for Ukraine
The Lithuanian defense industry is preparing to produce large numbers of landmines, starting with anti-tank mines and moving on to anti-personnel mines, including some for Ukraine, once the NATO-member Baltic country formally exits the Ottawa Convention banning such weapons, industry and government said.
A spokesperson for the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense confirmed that Deputy Minister of Defense Karolis Aleksa had told local media that “we are going to spend hundreds of millions of euros not only on anti-tank mines, but also on anti-personnel mines.”
“Lithuanian defense industry is currently in the early stages of developing anti-tank landmines. This process is still in its infancy, but we are optimistic that companies will successfully start production. The potential production of anti-personnel mines will only be possible once the decision to exit the Ottawa Convention will come into force,” Vincas Jurgutis, Senior Advisor of The Lithuanian Defence and Security Industry Association (LDSIA) said.
Regarding possible sales or other forms of delivering mines to Ukraine, Jurgutis said “Lithuanian manufacturers, while preparing for potential mine production, are primarily focusing on meeting Lithuania's domestic defense needs. However, should these products be developed, they could indeed be exported to countries with a legitimate need for such munitions, provided those countries comply with Lithuania's export regulations for military equipment.”
Like the other two Baltic countries Estonia and Latvia, Lithuania has promised to spend 0.25 % of its gross domestic product (GDP) on military aid to Ukraine, which could include purchasing landmines for Kyiv.
According to Jurgutis, “Currently, approximately five companies are evaluating the potential to enter the landmine production sector. At this stage, the focus is on developing anti-tank mines.”
Anti-tank mines, which Lithuania seeks to manufacture first, have been excluded from the ban on anti-personnel land mines now being abandoned by all three Baltic countries, Finland and Poland. Anti-tank mines are triggered by weight or sensors noticing the presence of a large vehicle and don’t explode when stepped on by people or animals.
To expedite production, companies are also looking for partnerships, both within Lithuania and internationally, and are open to various forms of collaboration. While there have been no specific talks with Ukraine, the LDSIA spokesman said both investments by Ukrainian companies in Lithuanian enterprises making landmines were possible, as well as Ukrainian companies building their own factories in Lithuania.
“Should serious discussions arise, we believe there would be potential for such collaboration, particularly given the strategic advantages of operating outside Ukraine's conflict zones,” Jurgutis said.
He pointed out that with the defense industry currently preparing to eventually make all kinds of landmines “in order to expedite production, companies are also looking for partnerships, both within Lithuania and internationally, and are open to various forms of collaboration.”\
Protest Latvia’s deportation of a leftist activist
Latvia has deported a leftist activist Vladislav Romanenko who was part of an informal "libertarian socialist" collective or group called Maiznīca (Bread Bakery in Latvian) located in Riga. On July 8. a protest was held by supporters of Romanenko by a court building where his apparently already executed deportation was being appealed. As many as 50 people showed up at the protest on Elizabetes Street in the Latvian capital, heard speeches - some here in Latvian. However none of the organizers wanted to speak to me as representing media (in this case, just my Substack and social media, not the Spanish news agency EFE that I often work for). I was not told where Romanenko, a Russian citizen who opposes Russia's war against Ukraine, had been sent, probably because no one knows. He was in the process of renouncing his Russian citizenship. What can one say - the best way to get publicity for a genuine violation of freedom of speech is not to tell about it? Right??
More details about the official and legal basis for Romanenko’s deportation should become available from the Latvian Ministry of Interior on July 18, according to the LETA news agency, From what I was able to learn was that the activist allegedly violated Latvian laws against "Communist" symbols or propaganda. That law should be narrowly and rationally interpreted as a ban on reviving Soviet occupation era slogans and symbols, not a contemporary discussion of Marxist or anarchist ideas.
This is a link to the Maiznīca Instagram page, you may be able to find the video in English of Romanenko’s partner talking about his deportation.
https://www.instagram.com/maiznica60/
Drone from Belarus crashs in Lithuania, sends PM and Seimas chairman to shelters
An apparently home-made unmanned aircraft crossed into Lithuania from Belarus and crashed near a closed border checkpoint on July 10, causing Lithuania’s Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas and Saulius Skvernelis, chairman of the parliament or Seimas, to temporarily take shelter, Lithuanian officials said.
Elžbieta Žurovska-Puodžiūnienė, the head of the Prime Minister’s office explained that Paluckas and Skvernelis were taken to shelters in accordance with emergency routines until it was determined that the airspace violation was not a threat. President Gitanas Nauseda, who also would have been one of three top officials to be taken to safety, was visiting Ireland.
Lina Laurinaitytė, Head of the Communication Division of Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service said that the aircraft, made of wood and Styrofoam, did not carry any cargo or explosives. She noted that balloons and other types of drones had been used to smuggle cigarettes and other contraband from Belarus to Lithuania.
Local media published photos of the delta-shaped, dark-colored, slightly damaged aircraft which may have looked to observers like a Shahed drone of the kind used against Ukraine.
In early September 2024, an armed Russian Shahed drone apparently launched against Ukraine fell near a village in eastern Latvia. It flew over Belarus and then some 50 kilometers into the NATO member country and was found and its warhead detonated by the Latvian military.
Latvian PM Siliņa first to say Ukraine may get more Patriots
The 33-member so-called Coalition of the Willing committed to helping Ukraine has agreed to provide more US-made Patriot air-defense systems to Kyiv, Latvia’s Prime Minister Evika Siliņa told journalists in an evening press conference on July 10.
Speaking as the first head of government to meet with the media after a video conference among Coalition members, Siliņa declared that “there is good news, there will be Patriots”.
The Latvian Prime Minister cautioned that those nations in the Coalition that were cooperating with the US would make their own announcements of when and how the air defense systems would be provided to Ukraine.
Siliņa also stressed that a significant development for the Coalition was the first-time participation of US representatives in the conference, including South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsay Graham, the sponsor of a bill for strong US sanctions against Russia and countries conducting certain kinds of trade with Russia,
Also participating in the video conference attended by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenski was US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, retired US Army general Keith Kellogg.
“The United States understands very well how much Europe has done, that Europe has actually surprised itself, if we have also surprised the United States, as well as the commitments made at the NATO Summit, in relation to five percent, and support for Ukraine,” Siliņa said speaking at a Latvian military headquarters in the capital Riga where she could use top-secret level communications to participate in the Coalition video conference,
The Latvian Prime Minister said that various military plans with regard to Ukraine had been discussed in confidence, with Zelensky expressing his country’s needs to Coalition members.
Hinting that Latvian armed forces might play a role in securing Ukraine if a ceasefire or peace agreement is reached, Siliņa said “our military people have been working together with the militaries of the Coalition of the Willing for quite some time, and in fact, today there are also military plans in place for a ceasefire in Ukraine, so that we too can implement these military plans immediately.”