With the conflict between Russia and Ukraine almost three years old, Lithuania has announced that it will increase the amount it spends annually on defense to 6% starting in 2026 with the aim of strengthen and modernize its army, as announced by its president, Gitanas Nauseda, in a conference held this Friday.
In this way, the Baltic country, which shares a border with Russia and currently allocates 3% in this area, It will become the first nation to meet the NATO objective proposed by the Republican president-elect, Donald Trump, who has asked on more than one occasion to increase the current objective, which stands at 3%.
The decision, which was taken this Friday by the State Defense Council, has been described by Nauseda as “historical“. The country that currently spends the most in NATO on defense is Poland, which dedicates 4% of its national economic production to this sector.
“The possibility of Russian military aggression remains real, but not imminent. We need to increase our efforts to strengthen defense and deterrence significantly, dedicating more resources to this end. Our security is also guaranteed by our membership in the NATO alliance, but it will only be effective if we are prepared to defend ourselves,” declared the Lithuanian president.
The idea of increasing the defense budget has caused discrepancies between the countries that are within the alliance. While the Baltic countries have generally been encouraged to support this measure, defending that spending now will be much lower than it could be in the future After a possible Russian offensive, the rest of the countries have not been very involved in the Republican’s plan.
