NATO eFP Battle Group
As part of NATO’s strengthened deterrence and defence posture, Allies agreed at the 2016 Summit in Warsaw to enhance NATO’s military presence in the eastern part of the Alliance.
NATO’s enhanced forward presence is defensive, proportionate, and in line with international commitments. It represents a significant commitment by Allies and is a tangible reminder that an attack on one is an attack on all.
Fully deployed in June 2017, NATO’s enhanced forward presence comprises multinational forces provided by framework nations and other contributing Allies on a voluntary, fully sustainable and rotational basis.
They are based on four rotational battalion-size battlegroups that operate in concert with national home defence forces and are present at all times in the host countries.
Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States are the framework nations for the robust multinational presence in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland respectively.
Other Allies confirmed contributions to these forces: Albania, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain contribute to the Canadian-led battlegroup in Latvia; Belgium, Czech Republic, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway have joined the German-led battlegroup in Lithuania; Denmark and Iceland contribute to the UK-led battlegroup in Estonia; and Croatia, Romania and the United Kingdom have joined the US-led battlegroup in Poland.
Enhanced forward presence forces are complemented by the necessary logistics and infrastructure to support pre-positioning and to facilitate rapid reinforcement.
The four battlegroups are under NATO command, through the Multinational Corps Northeast Headquarters in Szczecin, Poland. Multinational Division Northeast Headquarters (MND-NE) in Elblag, Poland coordinates and supervises training and preparation activities of the four battlegroups.
On June 19, 2017 at the Camp Adazi in Latvia the enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup Welcome Ceremony took place, thus also marking the successful completion of the eFP deployments to the Baltic States and Poland.
The troops of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence battlegroup was welcomed by Raimonds Vejonis, the President of the Republic of Latvia, Raimonds Bergmanis, the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Latvia, Major General Leonids Kalnins, the Chief of Defence of the National Armed Forces, and other high level officials from NATO and troop-contributing nations.
The NATO enhanced forward presence battalion in Latvia are led by Canada whose military personnel also forms the core of the battalion.
In 2017 the battalion was manned also by Albania, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Spain, in total, more than 1000 soldiers.
In July 2023, Defence Minister of Latvia Ināra Mūrniece and Canada’s Minister of National Defence Anita Anand signed a road map taking stock of previous achievements and detailing further steps in upgrading Canadian-led NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group Latvia from battalion to brigade level. Signing took place at Camp Ādaži.
According to road map, NATO eFP Battle Group will continuously and gradually grow bigger in terms of number of troops and equipment units deployed to Latvia. Latvia has also announced its commitment to invest in further development of national defence capabilities and other kinds of host country support to allies, including development of the new Selonia Training Area. According to plans, NATO brigade will reach full combat readiness by 2026.
