FNF Baltic States

FNF Baltic States Supporting security and defense cooperation in the Baltic Sea & exchange on innovation to defend freedom and democracy.

A hub for dialogue between NATO and EU members and between civil society, military and politics.

„Analyse statt Wunschdenken über Russland: Das leistet der neue Newsletter „Der Russlandversteher“, direkt zu bestellen ...
26/06/2026

„Analyse statt Wunschdenken über Russland: Das leistet der neue Newsletter „Der Russlandversteher“, direkt zu bestellen auf Russlandversteher dot com mit Julius Freytag-Loringhoven für die Фонд Бориса Немцова за Свободу | BNFF und die Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung FNF Baltic States . Die ersten Artikel auch schon auf t-online , im ersten Beitrag erklärt , warum Russlands Wirtschaft weder kollabiert noch wächst – und zu welchem Preis das so ist. Die Redaktion des Newsletters machen Mandy Ganske-Zapf und Tamina Kutscher – wer sich noch nicht angemeldet hat, kann das hier tun (natürlich kostenlos): Link im ersten Kommentar.

“We believe that if everyone has the skills to defend themselves using FPV drones, we will all be safer and better prepa...
26/06/2026

“We believe that if everyone has the skills to defend themselves using FPV drones, we will all be safer and better prepared for whatever comes our way”, says Dronų mokykla (.lt).

Founded by Karolis and Faustas, the young team has over 10 years of experience building and flying FPV drones. Their passion has grown into a mission: to help as many people as possible develop these valuable skills, with an ambitious vision of seeing 100,000 Lithuanians capable of building and piloting FPV drones.

And together we hope to also reach more Germans to learn from them: Now Dronų Mokykla Lietuvoje provides FPV training for school students, supports military personnel with specialized training, and organize drone assembly workshops for anyone interested in learning the technology behind FPV drones and helping to send state-of-the-art drones to Ukraine. Their expertise and dedication are helping build a new generation of skilled drone operators.

Thank you for your service, sharing your experience and we’re looking forward to do more together and to seeing your community grow! 🇱🇹🇺🇦🇩🇪

NATO finally learning from Ukraine’s drone innovation.In the last years, many leaders from NATO countries treated Ukrain...
28/05/2026

NATO finally learning from Ukraine’s drone innovation.

In the last years, many leaders from NATO countries treated Ukrainian battlefield innovation with much ignorance and arrogance. Ukraine was seen as only improvising under pressure “It's Ukrainian housewives…” Meanwhile, Ukraine built the most adaptive, cost-efficient and battle-tested drone warfare ecosystem in Europe. At the second Drone Summit in Riga, this reality could no longer be ignored.

When asked by Julius Freytag-Loringhoven, Head of FNF Baltic States, on the most urgent lesson from the changing battlefield in Ukraine to implement, German Chief of Defence Carsten Breuer said:”rapid and flexible development and solutions with the available resources.”

Liberal Dutch Defence Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius (VVD, with FDP member of ALDE) said: “The determination, adaptability and innovative spirit of the Ukrainian army are unparalleled“

Davyd Aloian, Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukrainean, commented: “One of the most important lessons is that the speed is essential in modern warfare (…) If procurement takes months, technologies will already be outdated.”

The uncomfortable truth emerging in Riga: Ukraine is no longer only defending Europe, it is the most important teacher for Europe to defend itself.

Special thanks to Artis Pabriks, former Latvian Minister of Defence and Foreign Affairs and long-standing partner and liberal friend, to Sandis Šrāders, Director for Defence Technology Innovation at Riga Technical University, Fēlikss Neimanis and the whole wonderful team that pulled this groundbraking event together!

What Trump means for Panzerbrigade 45 in Lithuania?As part of our ongoing political education programme for German Bunde...
21/03/2026

What Trump means for Panzerbrigade 45 in Lithuania?

As part of our ongoing political education programme for German Bundeswehr soldiers in Lithuania since 2025, we were honored to listen to Christoph Eichhorn, who served nine years in the USA, including as an exchange civil servant in the US Department of State and as German Ambassador to Estonia (2015–2019) and Bulgaria (2019–2022).

In his talk “The Role and Positioning of the United States,” Ambassador Eichhorn shared his sober insights on current geopolitical dynamics, the deep meaning of Freedom Germans can learn from the Baltic States and his other personal lessons from the Baltic states, the US and Russia with members of Panzerbrigade 45.

The event took place in our Freedom Center in Vilnius and is part of our continued commitment to fostering dialogue and strategic understanding between Panzerbrigade 45 and the experts and civil society in the Baltic states.

We thank all the participants for their interest and active engagement, and looking forward to the next events!

Defence - of Freedom - a winning agenda for liberals: together with liberals from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania German L...
19/03/2026

Defence - of Freedom - a winning agenda for liberals: together with liberals from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania German Liberals of FDP worked on how liberal democracies and open societies need to and can be defended.

The exchange focused on learning from the Baltic states’ experience in advocating for a free and resilient society. Participants shared ideas on how campaigning can build public support for defense of freedom. Strengthening cooperation between liberal partners across Europe remains essential, especially in times when freedom and security must be actively defended. 🇪🇺

We thank Henning Höne (Vice-Chair of FDP, Chair of FDP NRW) for his leadership and initiative, our inspiring facilitators Annika Arras (Founder of Miltton New Nordics) and Sven Gerst (Philosopher), inspiring speakers Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen (Chair of Liberalai, Lithuania), Dr. Artis Pabriks (former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense of Latvia), Col. Dr. Hans-Joachim Ruff-Stahl (Military Attaché of Germany in Lithuania) and Dr. Timo Graf (sociologist of Germany's Bundeswehr Centre of Military History and Social Science).

And, of course, many thanks to all participants from Germany that were open to learn from their Baltic friends and brought this agenda forward:
🔹 Dennys Bornhöft (Amt Eidertal)
🔹 Andre Hassan Khan (Chair of Liberal soldiers and veterans)
🔹 Lennart Jürgensen (Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit)
🔹 Nike Schneider (Chief of staff of FDP Secretary General Nicole Büttner)
🔹 Dr. Anastasia Vishnevskaya-Mann (FDP Berlin)
🔹 Maria Westphal (Chair of FDP Köln)

During their visit, the group also had the inspiring opportunity to visit the Vilnius vorai (Vilnius spiders) initiative of the “Support for Ukraine” group of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union, where everybody helped to build camouflage nets, a hands-on execise of civic engagement for defense.

“War against Ukraine After Four Years: What the Battlefield Dictates” - this was the title of yesterday’s event at Vilni...
27/02/2026

“War against Ukraine After Four Years: What the Battlefield Dictates” - this was the title of yesterday’s event at Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science, where a new analytical publication was presented, prepared in cooperation with CRI and Locked N' Loaded and supported by FNF Baltic States.

The event focused on what we learned from the frontline realities: how the war has evolved over four years, how this shapes Western decisions and support for Ukraine, and what constraints and opportunities this has created for the negotiation process.

We sincerely thank our distinguished speakers:
📍 Brigadier General Nerijus Stankevičius, Commander of the Land Forces of the Lithuanian Armed Forces
📍 Prof. Dovilė Jakniūnaitė, Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science
📍 Artūras Plokšto, Adviser to the Minister at the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Lithuania and lecturer at the General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania
📍 Romanas Judinas, Analyst at Locked N' Loaded
🎤 Moderator: Dr. Agnia Grigas, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council

In her welcome remarks, Laura Tatarėlytė (FNF Baltic states) stressed the importance of effectively communicating the lessons from the frontline to Germany and our Western allies, ensuring that we collectively learn, adapt, and strengthen our joint defence capabilities.

We thank again our partners CRI and Locked n Loaded and looking forward for our further cooperation.

🔗 Link to the publication in the comments.

02/01/2026

In 2025 the Freedom Center of Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit opened in Vilnius to bring analysis, assessments and answers on security & defence from the Baltic States to Germany. What a ride! So much good energy 💪, ideas 💡and reach 📰 through our partners and friends in the struggle to fight for a free Europe. Snippets of the opening in June 2025 in the video.

The first special thanks to the German politicians that joined, supported and discussed our projects in the first year - especially as it is not easy for Germans to admit that we have to learn from others ;) Thank you Henning Höne, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Christian Dürr, Nicole Büttner-Thiel, Finn Flebbe, Michael Link, Steffen Dähne, Dr. Ann-Veruschka Jurisch, Jürgen Morlok, Stefan Kolev, Christopher Gohl, Kerry Hoppe, Konstantin Kuhle, Andre Hassan Khan, Johannes Vogel, Tobias Bauschke, Marius Strubenhoff, Paavo Czwikla, Phil Hackemann, Gyde Jensen and Cord Schultz!

And even bigger thanks of course to our wonderful partners from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. Starting with the ones who guided us at the beginning and made our opening impactful: Edward Lucas, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Artis Pabriks, Hanno Pevkur, Jonas Ohman, Yevheniya Kravchuk, Petras Auštrevičius, Tomas Godliauskas, Valts Āboliņš, Minna Ålander, Kadi Silde, Gundbert Scherf, Dirk Niebel, Emanuelis Zingeris, Anne Brasseur, Cornelius Zimmermann and Jules Maaten

The fight for a free Europe is team work and with all these great minds and active people we will also win this!

Biggest ever Business delegation from Germany in Baltic States @ German-Baltic Defence Industry Conference 2025 🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹🇩🇪...
01/12/2025

Biggest ever Business delegation from Germany in Baltic States @ German-Baltic Defence Industry Conference 2025 🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹🇩🇪🇺🇦

We were proud as co-organisers that the "Drone Warfare: Tactical Impact & Industrial Opportunities" panel, moderated by Julius Freytag-Loringhoven (FNF Baltic States) with Artis Pabriks of MilTech Latvia, Stanislav Gryshyn of General Cherry, Karolis Žemaitis of Frankenburg Technologies and Vincas Jurgutis of LDSIA - Lithuanian Defence and Security Industry Association came up with three crucial lessons — drawing on Ukraine’s experience — that deeply inform how we should think about drone and counter-drone strategies in Europe:

1️⃣ Mass production of cheap drones is essential to counter FPV and Shahed-style drone swarms.
2️⃣ Instead of a “drone wall,” what we need is decentralised, low-cost interception systems everywhere — because attacks can come from any direction, not only across borders.
3️⃣ A decentralised, market-driven organisational model — like the one Ukrainians are using — can outperform centralized structures such as the Russian “Rubicon” model. Gamified decentralisation spurs innovation, fosters parallel systems, and yields better defensive capabilities for the future.

As 🇱🇹 Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys Užsienio reikalų ministerija highlighted:
“This conference is not only a platform for dialogue but also a practical tool to promote joint projects, innovation, and investment in the defence industry.” and 🇪🇪 Estonia's Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur, Kaitseministeerium said: "We need to learn from Ukrainians...in order to win...and not to prepare for the last war"

The official signature of the German-Lithuanian drone joint venture between Quantum Systems and ADV Defense with 🇩🇪German Minister of State Florian Hahn and 🇱🇹Lithuania's Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas was a good sign of tangible results during the conference.

A big thank you to German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (AHK) Vokietijos ir Baltijos šalių prekybos rūmai and especially Florian Schröder, Audronė Gurinskienė, Inga Laurušonė and the whole team for stellar organisation — and thanks to all partners who made this gathering a pivotal step forward for Baltic, German and Ukrainian defence cooperation! hashtag

Fotos by Arturas Nikogosian 📸

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