US embassy cable - 05VILNIUS527

UNCLAS VILNIUS 000527 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/NB, EUR/RPM (SWANDERSON), PM/PPA (SKWAK) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: MOPS, MARR, PREL, PGOV, LH, AF, HT6 
SUBJECT: LITHUANIAN DEFENSE COUNCIL APPROVES INCREASING 
TROOP DEPLOYMENTS FOR INTERNATIONAL OPS 
 
1. Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis told the Ambassador May 
19 that he expects speedy passage through parliament of 
legislation increasing the number of troops the Lithuanian 
military may deploy to participate in international 
operations.  The Lithuanian State Defense Council, an 
inter-ministerial group over which President Valdas Adamkus 
presides, on May 18 approved draft legislation to raise the 
ceiling on troop deployments for such missions from 330 to 
350, authorizing the increase through the end of 2005.  The 
adjustment will allow the GOL to meet anticipated staffing 
requirements of the provincial reconstruction team that 
Lithuania will lead in Chaghcharan, Afghanistan.  The 
proposal will also permit the MOD to redeploy personnel from 
one theater of operation to any other without prior 
parliamentary authorization. 
 
2.  At the same session, the Council also approved a draft 
proposal raising the ceiling for 2006 to 420, and formally 
approved Lithuania's imminent launch of a Provincial 
Reconstruction Team in the Ghowr province of Western 
Afghanistan.  The President will likely introduce the bill in 
the Parliament the week beginning May 23. 
Mull