Lithuania urges European leaders to double defense spending

Lithuania calls on European leaders to double its defense spending, posing as an example for this bold move.

Amid the recent debates surrounding Europe's security dependency on the United States and insufficient investment into defense structures, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda gave this firm statement to journalists on February 21, Caliber.Az reports citing Lithuanian media.

Responding to US President Donald Trump's assertions that Europeans are paying too little attention to defense in the face of the ongoing war on the continent, President Nauseda said that he agreed with "the US's criticism that this burden is currently not shared fairly. The US bears the lion's share of the burden related to the NATO budget. Therefore, Europe must contribute at least twice as much as it does now. It seems to me that after the Munich Security Conference, the belief is increasingly spreading that this time we need to talk not about cosmetic increases in defense spending, but about a truly decisive and cardinal increase in defense spending." 

The Baltic state is among the leaders within Europe when it comes to defense spending in relation to their GDP, despite its relatively small economy and territory size. The country's 2025 state budget allocates a record €2.5 billion for defense, amounting to 3.03% of GDP, compared to 2.75% of GDP a year ago. At the same time, the government has increased the country's borrowing limit by €800 million. As a result, defense spending could reach 4% of GDP this year.

In mid-January, Lithuania's State Defense Council, led by President Nausėda, decided that from 2026 to 2030, defense spending should range from 5% to 6% of GDP, an amount much higher than the current NATO guideline of 2%, or even the newly proposed 3.5%. A legislative amendment aimed at increassing the share of profit that the Bank of Lithuania transfers to the state budget is meant to assist in that, with the government planning to use these additional funds on defense. 

By Nazrin Sadigova