Linas Jegelevičius
Some Lithuanian politicians and analysts joke that unless the Baltics – and Lithuania – ask U.S. President Donald Trump to annex them or offer the eccentric American leader to establish a vast and posh golf course somewhere on the Baltic coast, the probability of seeing him in Vilnius, Riga, or Tallinn is extremely slim or non-existent.
However, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda thinks otherwise –
he has invited the new President of the United States, Trump, to the Bucharest Nine (B9) summit due to take place in Lithuania in June.
“Given the high-level format and the specifics of a region that invests sustainably in defence, it is logical to attempt to invite the U.S. President. At the same time, there is an understanding that the likelihood of his visit is not high. U.S. President Biden visited Lithuania less than two years ago, so another visit of this calibre, even with a change in political leadership, would be unprecedented,” Linas Kojala, Director at the Vilnius-based Geopolitics and Security Studies Center, told BNN.
President Gitanas Nausėda said in his invitation on Tuesday, the 4th of February: “…I know that Poland has also invited him to the Three Seas Summit in Warsaw. It would be nice if Donald Trump would accept at least one of these invitations,” the Lithuanian leader was quoted by Lithuania’s national broadcaster LRT.
“It would be a great opportunity for all of us to talk about issues that are important both for the European Union and particularly for the eastern flank of NATO, our region,” he added.
The Bucharest Nine unites nine countries of NATO’s Eastern flank – Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary. The B9 format was launched in 2015 in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014.
President Trump has already met with the Baltic leaders – the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – during his first term in the White House in April 2018, two years after his victory in the 2016 presidential election.
This meeting was part of the U.S.-Baltic Summit, where Trump met with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Latvian President Raimonds Vējonis, and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė. The discussions focused on security cooperation, NATO commitments, Russia’s influence in the region, trade, and economic partnerships.
Notably, President Joe Biden visited Vilnius in July 2023, where he attended the NATO Summit.
However, considering Trump’s “America First” principle and his reticence to engage with EU leaders, analysts suggest that the chances of seeing the U.S. President in Vilnius again are very slim, yet not impossible.
“The message Trump and his administration are sending is very clear: everything, including America’s foreign policy, will be different than it was until now. He will do all he can to show the stark contrast between himself and Joe Biden (the former U.S. President) he disliked. It seems to me that Trump despises European leaders, except for a few,” Vytautas Dumbliauskas, a Lithuanian analyst and associate professor at Mykolas Romeris University, told BNN.
According to Dumbliauskas, Europe is far from the top of Trump’s priorities; however, he concedes that it is “difficult” to predict Trump’s plans.
“The decision on whether President Trump will attend the B9 summit in Vilnius largely depends on how lobbyists and his inner circle present the event to him. If they can effectively demonstrate that the summit aligns with his policies – such as emphasizing strong defence commitments or highlighting Lithuania and the Baltic states as exemplary NATO allies – there is a real possibility that Trump will consider visiting Vilnius,” Dumbliauskas emphasized.
Trump’s arrival in Vilnius and his praise for Eastern and Central Europe for aligning their defence needs with the U.S. demand for all NATO member states to contribute more to defence could also serve as a “slap” to Western European nations reluctant to increase their defence spending.
Speaking to BNN, Naglis Puteikis, assistant to Lithuanian MEP Petras Gražulis, does not exclude the possibility of seeing President Trump in Vilnius for the B9 Summit.
“It depends on how the American President views it—whether the meeting will allow him to reaffirm his policies and so forth,” Puteikis said.
“I believe that the Trump administration has already heard of Lithuania’s commitment to increasing its defence spending up to 5 percent, and Trump’s team might think that Vilnius is the right place to exhort other EU nations to follow this example,” Puteikis added.
Following Trump’s victory in the presidential election in November, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda took to social media to announce that he had called Trump, and they had a brief conversation.
“If this was really true – according to some observers, Nausėda was the fifth foreign leader to speak with the U.S. president-elect – this gives us hope to see Trump in Vilnius in June,” Puteikis said.
In December 2024, during a dinner in Paris, Nausėda met with U.S. President-elect, Trump.
As a reminder, Notre-Dame de Paris, the medieval Catholic cathedral in Paris, France, was reopened on the 7th of December, 2024, following the completion of the restoration work five years after the fire that destroyed the cathedral’s spire and roof and caused extensive damage to its interior in 2019.
However, Nausėda has described Trump’s remarks about taking control of Greenland as unacceptable and called for respect for sovereignty, an issue that the Trump team may consider when deciding whether to attend the B9 Summit in Vilnius, analysts say.
Puteikis argues that EU leaders have contributed to alienating Trump.
“Some of them harshly criticized Trump, so they cannot expect him to be very friendly and attentive to their needs now,” the MEP assistant said.
As of February 2025, two U.S. presidents have visited Lithuania. Before Biden in 2023, President George W. Bush visited Vilnius in 2002, marking the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to Lithuania. During this visit, President Bush met with Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and delivered a historic speech in Vilnius’s Town Hall Square, stating, “Anyone who would choose Lithuania as an enemy has also made an enemy of the United States of America.”
U.S. President Barack Obama met with the leaders of the Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – in Washington, D.C., in 2013.
Despite efforts by the European Commission to establish contact with the new U.S. leader, no high-level meetings have taken place so far.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s new foreign policy whip, has said that she has invited Marco Rubio, the new US Secretary of State, to attend a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels, however, he has not yet responded to the invitation.
However, on the 27th of January, Secretary Rubio did have a call with Kallas, discussing strengthening transatlantic security, the importance of Europe increasing defence spending, and the issue of Ukraine.
Besides, the US threatens the EU to impose tariffs on European goods, and the EU leaders have spoken of “readiness” to retaliate if necessary.
This lack of engagement may suggest a more isolationist stance by the United States or a shift towards addressing nations individually rather than working with blocs.