Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė said Wednesday that Lithuania plans to allocate 5.38% of its GDP to the military in its 2026 state budget.
“Defence spending in the 2026 budget will reach 5.38% of GDP. This is a record amount,” Ruginienė told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
Finance Minister Kristupas Vaitiekūnas said defence funding next year will total nearly 4.8 billion euros.
Ruginienė said the allocations are based on the Defence Ministry’s needs but will also cover related infrastructure projects that are not directly tied to military capability – such as building and improving roads leading to military training grounds.
“It’s only natural that when you buy a tank, you need to be able to move it during wartime,” she said. “We should not understand defence solely through weapons procurement. There are many other things that become active and essential in wartime.”
The prime minister added that the increased funding will not affect Lithuania’s key defence commitments, including developing a national army division and implementing projects linked to the hosting of NATO allies.
Conservative leader warns of ‘trickery’
Laurynas Kasčiūnas, the leader of the opposition Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD), has commented that there might be ‘trickery’ in the way the government calculates the military budget.
According to Kasčiūnas, dual-purpose projects, such as roads used by the military, may be included to inflate the defence spending.
“We will see everything when we see the detailed budget for the national defence system. Then we will be able to say whether there is trickery or not. There may be,” the he told reporters at the Seimas on Wednesday.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
