Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said Monday he has received assurances from representatives of the Nemunas Dawn party that they will support legislation establishing a new military training ground in southern Lithuania, despite the party leader’s expressed scepticism about the facility.
“From the representatives of Nemunas Dawn who participated in today’s meeting, yes, such an assurance has been given,” Nausėda told reporters after meeting with the board of the Seimas of Lithuania.
However, he suggested the party’s broader position remains unclear.
“It is possible that the faction has a different opinion, but when it comes to the party leader, perhaps it is not so much the opinion itself that is the problem as the him changing the opinion too often,” the president said.
Vice speakers of parliament Raimondas Šukys and Daiva Žebelienė, who were delegated by Nemunas Dawn, attended the meeting.
The proposed law on establishing a military training ground in Kapčiamiestis is expected to be debated during the upcoming spring session of the Seimas, Lithuania’s parliament, although it remains uncertain whether all coalition parties will support the initiative.
Remigijus Žemaitaitis, chairman of Nemunas Dawn, said last week that after recent military actions in the Middle East he no longer saw the need to establish a new training ground.
According to him, recent developments show that air defence systems are now the top priority, while training grounds storing weapons and military equipment could become targets for hostile forces.
Robertas Kaunas, Lithuania’s defence minister, dismissed those remarks as a “strange interpretation” and urged political leaders to listen to military professionals when making decisions affecting the armed forces.
Nausėda said he hoped the legislation would receive broad support from both governing and opposition parties.
“Essentially, this is how we prove whether national security matters to us or not,” he said. “To talk about national security and its importance but not allow necessary steps to ensure the Lithuanian army has a place to conduct exercises would be demagoguery.”
The State Defence Council – comprised of Lithuania’s top political and military leaders – decided in mid-December to establish a brigade-sized training ground in Kapčiamiestis in Lazdijai District Municipality and to double the size of the training area in Tauragė.
The Defence Ministry said the Kapčiamiestis site was chosen because of its strategic location near the Suwalki Gap, a key corridor between Poland and Lithuania considered critical for the defence of NATO’s eastern flank.
The planned training ground could host between 3,500 and 4,000 soldiers at a time. Larger exercises would be held around five times a year and last up to 10 days, while smaller training activities would take place continuously.
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