Is the threat that serious? – One of Russia’s neighbors drastically increases its military spending

In his statement to the press Nauseda Gypsies he called the decision taken at the defense council meeting historic, which he justified by a possible Russian military aggression.

Lithuania currently spends just over 3 percent of its GDP on defense. With Nauseda’s announcement today

Lithuania is the first NATO member country to target an increase to five percent of GDP, in line Donald Trump with the previous statement of the US president-elect urging an increase in spending.

Trump at a press conference in early January talked about itthat NATO member countries should increase their defense spending to 5 percent of their GDP – according to him, each member state can afford this. The current expectation is 2 percent of GDP. Even during the campaign, Trump once said that he would not protect NATO member countries that do not meet this requirement, and even Vladimir Putint would encourage him to attack them.

The proposal of the elected American president was criticized by several NATO member countries: Olaf Scholz German Chancellor distanced himself from the proposal, Guido Crosetto and the Italian Minister of Defense believed that this would be difficult during the economic crisis.

The threat of Russian military aggression, although not immediate, is real. By freeing up significantly more resources, we must step up our protection and deterrence efforts. Our security is guaranteed by our NATO membership, but this will only be effective if we are also ready to defend ourselves

Nauseda stated.

Kestutis Budrys In his message published on X, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister also called on other NATO member states to follow the example of Vilnius, stressing:

The era of “sitting and waiting” is over. Difficult times call for bold leadership and bold decisions.

In terms of spending, Poland is currently in the lead, with more than four percent of its GDP, but Warsaw has announced that it plans to increase the ratio.