Lithuania is hoping for greater clarity on the future of American troops in the country in the coming days, as President Gitanas Nausėda heads to attend the NATO summit in Ankara, where he hopes to meet US President Donald Trump.
No formal bilateral meeting between the two leaders has been scheduled, but presidential aide Deividas Matulionis said discussions on the sidelines could touch on the rotation of US forces in Lithuania.
More than 1,000 American troops completed their rotation in Lithuania this summer, and Vilnius is awaiting word on whether, and in what numbers, US forces will return, as Washington reviews its broader troop deployments across Europe.
"We have already said on several occasions that here in Lithuania we very much hope American forces will return in the near future, and perhaps in greater numbers than before," Matulionis told LRT Radio on Monday.
He pointed to positive signals coming from Poland, where, according to the Polish newspaper Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, US troop numbers are expected to increase within three months.
