Europe’s rush to rearm to face off the threat from Russia means countries will have to buy weapons from the U.S. as well as boosting their own arms industries, Lithuania’s defense minister told POLITICO.
“At the same time, we need to support our national and European defense industries, while also keeping and nourishing transatlantic bonds, which means buying American weapons,” said Dovilė Šakalienė. “So we are going to balance.”
“It’s not really about the weapons manufacturers, it’s about the ability to defend ourselves. Political and national interests are going to be part of the equation, but the main element is going to be our security,” she added. “Those able to produce weapons that best answer our needs, and to produce them the fastest, are the most desirable on the market.”
Lithuania shares a border with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and has long warned Europeans that Russian leader Vladimir Putin won’t stop at Ukraine.
The Baltic country has dramatically boosted its defense spending in recent years. The military budget could reach 4 percent of GDP this year — twice NATO’s current target — and is expected to be even higher in the coming years.
The country also started to reinforce its borders with mines and anti-tank obstacles.
Under NATO’s capability targets, which are currently being updated, Vilnius needs to be able to field a national division by 2030. It currently hosts a U.S. battalion and is expecting a German brigade.
“We would be naive to think that Europe does not need the United States. We do,” Šakalienė said. “But at the same time, we also need Europe to grow stronger.”
Lithuania, she insisted, buys weapons from many different countries: Leopard tanks from Germany, Caesar self-propelled howitzers from France, Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile Systems and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems from the U.S.
Finding more money
Last week, the Lithuanian government announced Vilnius will spend between 5 percent and 6 percent of GDP on defense from next year to 2030 — earning praise from the European Commissioner for Defense Andrius Kubilius, a former Lithuanian PM.
The spending announcement “is not specifically tailored” to U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for 5 percent of GDP to become NATO’s new target, Šakalienė said, calling it “just a lucky coincidence.”
One key question, however, is where the money will come from. This week, President Gitanas Nausėda said Lithuania would need to spend an additional €12 billion to €13 billion to reach its 2030 goals; in 2024, the country spent €2.1 billion on defense.
Šakalienė said her country isn’t planning to slash the welfare state to boost the military budget. That’s in contrast to recent comments from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who suggested that social spending should be reduced to free up cash for defense.
“Taking certain austerity measures to cut our education, health care, social affairs to fund defense is not a sustainable solution,” the defense minister argued.
Spending as much as 6 percent of GDP on the military will require a mix of national and EU money, she said. “Of course, [the increase] is coming from our budget. But part of it we will have to be through European financial instruments.”
Europeans can’t afford to wait for the EU’s next multi-year budget slated for 2027; short-term fund-raising options include defense bonds and redirecting money from cash pots such as the NextGenerationEU Covid recovery fun and the SURE program to relieve unemployment, she added.
President Nausėda will put those issues on the table at the defense-focused informal meeting of EU leaders on Feb. 3.
“We all understand that without throwing together an [EU] instrument that could be used for quick investment into external NATO borders in this region it’s not going to work,” Šakalienė said.
The post Lithuanian defense minister calls for ‘balance’ between US and European arms deals appeared first on Politico.
