Lithuania’s defence spending for 2026-2030 will be 5-6% of the country’s GDP in order to facilitate faster formation of army divisions, as decided by the Lithuanian State Defence Council on Friday, the 17th of January.
After the council’s meeting, President Gitanas Nauseda told journalists that the government “has agreed to divert 5-6% of GDP towards defence in the period between 2026 and 2030”.
He explained the agreement will help maintain defence spending at an average 5.5% during this period of time.
Nauseda said that Lithuania needs to achieve full capacity of the division and other critical infrastructure by 2030, not “sometime in the distant future”.
He also said he expects “maximum institutional mobilisation”.
“The possibility of Russian military aggression is still real, but it is not inevitable. We need to significantly increase our efforts to strengthen protection and deterrence and devote more resources to it,” said the Lithuanian President.
“Our security is also assured by our membership in the NATO alliance, but it will only be effective if we are prepared to defend ourselves,” he added.
After the meeting of the State Defence Council chaired by the President last November, defence officials announced that with the current defence funding, the Lithuanian army division could reach full operational capability in 2036-2040, not 2030, as previously planned.
This year, Lithuania plans to spend around 2.5 billion euros on defence, or slightly more than 3% of GDP. But the new government, which took office late last year, raised the government’s borrowing limit for this year to about 800 million euros, meaning that if borrowed in full, defence spending can reach up to 4% of GDP.
The State Defence Council, chaired by the President of Lithuania, also includes the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Parliament, the Minister of Defence and the Commander of the Armed Forces.