"We've had a chance to meet with the Polish defense minister and I've had also a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian Minister of Defense Pavel Lebedev. In the former and the latter formats, we in fact talked about the fact that there's a wish and mood to sign that agreement this year," Olekas told BNS on Friday.
"I cannot say precisely when. The Polish defense minister responded positively to my invitation to come to Lithuania to discuss our cooperation goals. Perhaps during the meeting we might be able to finally discuss whether everything is acceptable to everyone, whether all corners of that agreement are polished, and then, I hope, we could decide on a date," the Lithuanian defense minister said.
Under the plan, the trilateral brigade would take pat in international peacekeeping missions. The Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian units would stay in their permanent deployment locations. The Polish city if Lublin has been selected for the brigade's headquarters.
It was planned in early 2012, that a Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian brigade of around 4,500 troops would be established in 2013.