On Friday, Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas said the country’s leaders should not frighten the people with the talk of war. This followed his earlier comments that Lithuania was “in the safest position” it has ever been.
“Lithuania has never been better prepared than it is now, and even greater and more important steps are being taken to ensure that our preparedness, the preparedness of the defence sector and the military. [...] It is the biggest deterrent so that nobody ever tries to threaten us in any way,” the prime minister told reporters in Kalipėda on Friday.
There was no need to frighten people with the threat of war, he added.
“A frightened, anxious person is psychologically less productive, falls into depression, is reluctant to invest. It is in the best interest of all of us that every person in Lithuania is as calm as possible, that people do their job, invest, and thus generate more revenue for the budget and improve our defence possibilities,” Paluckas said.
“All state leaders should not intimidate the public,” he added.
Earlier this week, Paluckas said the region is safe, as it has never seen so much investment in defence. However, Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė countered his comments, saying “we are in the most threatening situation in decades”.
On Friday, Paluckas said there was no difference of opinion between him and his defence minister. “There is certainly no difference in our positions when it comes to the level of Lithuania's preparedness,” he said.
Paluckas and Šakalienė made the remarks following the phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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