Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Monday that NATO must step up its future defence funding commitments.

As the United States has pressed allies to allocate 5% of GDP to defence, diplomats say that NATO member states will seek to agree on this commitment by splitting it into two parts at the upcoming NATO summit in Hague later this June.

The idea is to increase defence spending as such to 3.5% of GDP, but to allocate another 1.5% of GDP to defence-related needs such as the development of dual-use infrastructure.

NATO countries are considering a 2032 deadline for this, but the Lithuanian president feels that it should be accomplished during the next five years.

Leaders from eastern and northern NATO member states gathered in Vilnius on Monday to discuss the upcoming Hague summit. Nauseda said that “Russia is not waiting” in terms of reforming its own military forces.

“We have very limited time to do the same,” Mr Nauseda told journalists at the Palace of Grand Dukes in central Vilnius. “I think we need to talk about the next three to five years.”

Source: BNS

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