Lithuania needs to allocate 5.5 percent of its GDP to defence to establish a military division by 2030, President Gitanas Nausėda has said.
“We really need 5.5 percent of GDP to implement the program as planned by 2030. This isn’t just about the division, its formation in terms of people, but also about armaments, reserves, infrastructure. There are many things that accompany the creation of a division,” the president told TV3 news on Wednesday.
Nausėda has said earlier that Lithuania could consider disregarding European fiscal discipline rules to ensure that the division is fully developed in the Lithuanian Armed Forces within the timeframe.
Defence officials estimate that at current funding levels, Lithuania’s military division would only achieve full operational capability by 2036–2040, rather than 2030 as originally planned.
Nausėda has also said that bringing the timeline forward to 2030 would require 10 billion to 14 billion euros in defence funding over this period, in addition to what is currently projected.
Next year’s state budget initially allocated about 2.5 billion euros for defence, or just over 3 percent of GDP. However, the new government increased the 2025 borrowing limit by roughly 800 million euros, and borrowing this full amount could raise defence spending to 4 percent of GDP.
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