Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda announced that the country plans to allocate between 5% and 6% of its GDP for defense from 2026 to 2030.
Following a meeting of the State Defense Council, Nausėda stated that “the likelihood of Russian military aggression remains real, but it is not inevitable.”
According to LRT, after the October meeting of the State Defense Council, it was revealed that the army division would not be able to achieve full operational capability by 2030, as originally planned.
Nausėda assessed that if national defense funding is not increased and the situation in the defense industry remains unchanged, the division will not be combat-ready until 2036-2040.
Therefore, the Lithuanian president emphasized that in order to form the division within the planned timeline, defense allocations must reach 5.5% of GDP.
