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Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys began his visit to Washington, D.C., U.S. On Wednesday, 5 February, the Foreign Minister spoke at the opening event of the GLOBSEC conference.

In his speech, the Foreign Minister emphasized that the NATO Alliance was currently under tremendous pressure because it had not invested enough in strengthening its defence over the last ten years. According to Budrys, so far, some allies have not allocated 2% of their GDP to defence, although this was agreed upon at the Wales summit in 2014. According to the Foreign Minister, too little effort has been made over the past two years to ensure a credible implementation of NATO’s regional plans.

“The volume of the U.S. defence expenditure accounts for approximately two-thirds of NATO’s annual defence budget as a whole, while Europe contributes the rest. The costs for collective defence are not shared fairly. Europe must do more to become stronger. All our joint investments in defence determine how strong and capable the Alliance will be,” said the Foreign Minister.

Additionally, the Foreign Minister stressed that, as our enemy was waging a brutal war against Ukraine for the third year in NATO’s neighbourhood, the Alliance must deter and, if necessary, defend every ally. Budrys emphasized that the only way to strengthen European security was to increase defence spending and allocate it in a targeted manner - to fill the existing gaps in military capabilities, empower the defence industry and continue to support Ukraine consistently.