Polish and Lithuanian leaders oversee military drills along their shared border

By MINDAUGAS KULBIS and LIUDAS DAPKUS
Associated Press

DIRMISKES, Lithuania (AP) — Polish President Andrzej Duda says “a potential aggressor must see our readiness” as he and his Lithuanian counterpart monitored a joint military drill along their shared border. Duda and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda met on the last day of the week-long Brave Griffin 24/II military exercise along the Suwalki Gap. The border is a strategically important stretch of land that’s considered a potential flashpoint area in case of a standoff between Russia and NATO. The border is also a land corridor between Belarus, a Moscow ally, and Russia’s Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad. The drill included 1,500 Lithuanian infantry soldiers, nearly 200 members of Poland’s 15th Mechanized Brigade, and U.S. and Portuguese military personnel.