Friday Minister of National Defence and representatives of the Lithuanian Armed Forces and other Lithuanian authorities met with a NATO team of experts on a visit in Lithuania on January 19–21 to offer an assessment on the progress made in our national defence system and fulfilment of NATO commitments, as well as provide recommendations.
When presenting their conclusions, the NATO representatives highlighted the importance of the increasing Lithuania’s defence financing and confirmed that the defence budget had to exceed 2 percent of DGP in order to implement national defence plans and commitments made.
“The increased defence budget has resulted in a significantly stronger Armed Forces that Lithuania has today. The experts agree that our military meets the high requirements of NATO. Procurements of modern weaponry has given it the capabilities never seen before. NATO is encouraging Lithuania to continue down this path,” said A. Anušauskas.
NATO experts also underscored that Lithuania successfully manned its military organisations structure. According to them, Lithuania has created attractive conditions for military service: former conscripts tend to proceed as career servicemembers, and continued attractiveness of military service will allow the country to have a better defence readiness in the nearest future.
According to the NATO experts, military training in Lithuania has reached top level of quality which is a result of growing defence investment into training infrastructure and allied forces deployed in the country. A. Anušauskas reaffirmed that Lithuania will continue expanding and developing its training areas in order to ensure the best training conditions for Lithuania and allied troops alike.
