The United States will terminate long -term military assistance to European countries adjacent to Russia. This will happen in a situation where the US is putting pressure on Europe to play a more fundamental role in the defense of its own territory. According to AFP, this was confirmed on Friday by representative of the Lithuanian defense department.
“Last week, the US Department of Defense informed the affected countries that the financing will be reduced to zero since the beginning of the new budgetary period,” said the Director of the Defense Policy Department at the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense Vaidotas Urbelis.
This decision comes in a situation where US President Donald Trump is looking for a way to end for three and a half years of Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Funding will hit hundreds of millions of dollars
By his statement, Urbelis confirmed the news of The Washington Post and the Financial Times (FT), which, referring to unnamed officials, said this step was part of Trump’s efforts to reduce US foreign spending.
According to FT, US officials announced last week by the European diplomat that Washington will no longer finance the training and armament of armies in Eastern Europe, at the border with Russia. According to The Washington Post, financing in a volume of several hundred million dollars is to be abolished.
In the case of Lithuania, the cuts will affect “the purchase of American weapons and other equipment, as well as training,” Urbelis said. He added that “this will not affect the presence of US soldiers in the region”, as it is paid from another chapter of the US budget. The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense said that the financing of training and armament of the Lithuanian army by the US covered a third of the US covered up to 80 percent of the total military aid that Lithuania received.
The January regulation continues
An unnamed White House representative said this step of Washington was in accordance with Trump’s executive regulation of January, orcated to re -evaluate US foreign aid.
“This decision was coordinated with European countries in accordance with the Executive Regulation and the President’s long -term emphasis on Europe to take more responsibility for its own defense,” the source said.
Trump has long been a skepticism of US spending on Europe and the aid of Ukraine, with pressure on Washington’s closest allies to play a greater role on both of these “fronts”.
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said in response to the Penimees daily that he sees this step as “especially symbolic – in a negative sense”.
