German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has described the start of a German brigade in Lithuania as a key step to improve the deployment capability of NATO forces and “an important day for the Bundeswehr.” “This is the first time that we have permanently stationed such a unit outside Germany,” Pistorius said on Monday in Berlin at a farewell ceremony for the preliminary command of the Lithuania brigade. The 20 or so personnel are to lay the groundwork for the deployment of hundreds and eventually thousands of soldiers in the NATO country, which borders Poland as well as Belarus and the Russian…