In a radical change of heart, European leaders are now ready to significantly increase their countries’ military spending, says Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė after returning from Munich Security Conference.
“The position on defence funding has completely changed. Previously, the closer a country was to Russia’s border, the more it recognised the need to boost defence spending. But now, no one in the room is even mentioning 2 percent anymore,” she told reporters in Vilnius on Monday, referring to the previous commitment of NATO member states to spend 2 percent of GDP on the military.
According to Šakalienė, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told European leaders that even 3 percent of GDP for defence is no longer enough.
“It will be a significantly higher number than 3 percent, and no one objected. The other thing is that it will have to be done right away, without delay, very quickly,” she said.
Šakalienė added, however, that it is still unclear what spending target European nations will seek.
“The percentage hasn’t been decided yet. These talks are moving very quickly now,” the minister said.
“What is clear is that bureaucratic restrictions will need to be reduced. As we heard, it was Germany that said in Munich that the Maastricht criteria should not apply to defence,” she added.
Šakalienė expects joint European decisions on the urgent investment of hundreds of millions of euros in protecting NATO’s borders to be made “in the near future”.
“Certain decisions on what the principles of joint financing will look like should start moving before [NATO’s] Hague summit,” the minister said.
“I think we’ll have to adopt certain decisions this year so that we can have them in effect as early as in 2026,” she added.
Šakalienė also announced plans to visit Washington, DC, in early March.
“The Americans want us to act fast and efficiently in terms of financial and political decisions and cooperation. I informed US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about what additional capabilities we could accommodate if they decided to move some forces within Europe,” the minister said.
“I won’t go into details, but we’re ready to host additional land and air force units,” she added.
Šakalienė assured that the US is not planning to abandon its NATO allies, but it “won’t tolerate an imbalance in defence funding”.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
