Raising Lithuania’s defence spending to 4% of GDP would allow the country’s new army division to reach full operational capacity by 2030, Lithuania’s defence chief, General Raimundas Vaiksnoras, stated, Baltic News Network reports. Lithuania’s new government has increased its borrowing limit for 2025 by around EUR 800mn. The full amount would raise the defence budget…
Lithuania’s new government plans to ease export controls on dual-use goods, LRT reports. Economy Minister Lukas Savickas said that the previous government had imposed the restrictions without consulting businesses first. He insisted that the restrictions must not harm exporters of high-tech products and should only be imposed if companies violate existing sanctions. An industry representative…
Lithuania’s state-owned investment firm EPSO-G Invest and ammunition manufacturer Giraites Ginkluotes Gamykla (GGG) have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture, Rheinmetall Defence Lithuania, with German defence industry group Rheinmetall, Baltic News Network reports. Under the agreemnt, the companies will invest in an artillery ammunition plant in the town of Baisogala in Lithuania’s Radviliskis district. Rheinmetall…
Last year was Lithuania’s warmest ever recorded, according to data from the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service (LHMT), BNS reports. The average annual air temperature in Lithuania was 9.5 degrees Celsius in 2024, which was 2.1 degrees higher than the average temperature in 1991-2020. All months except January were warmer in 2024 than the long-term average. The…
Lithuania will propose that the three Baltic States build a joint power plant to ensure flexible electricity production and energy security, Lithuanian Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas announced, BNS reports. Speaking on LRT, the minister suggested that the power plant could run on gas. He did not elaborate on the possible technology and location of the…
Lithuania’s Interior Minister, Vladislav Kondratovic, sees no need to relax existing restrictions on the entry of Belarusian citizens into Lithuania, BNS reports. Lithuania has stopped issuing new visas to Belarusian citizens with few exceptions and has closed four out of six checkpoints on the border with Belarus. Moreover, Belarusians arriving in the country are subject…
Five candidates are running to lead Lithuania’s conservative opposition party, Homeland Union (TS-LKD), for the next four years, BNS reports. The five candidates are the party’s acting chairwoman, former education minister Radvile Morkunaite-Mikuleniene, former defence ministers Arvydas Anusauskas and Laurynas Kasciunas, MP Zygimantas Pavilionis, and the chairman of the party’s local branch in Jurbarkas, Daivaras…
Lithuania’s conservative Homeland Union plans to ask the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of President Gitanas Nauseda’s decree approving an incomplete cabinet of ministers, BNS reports. Homeland Union MP Mindaugas Linge argued that the formation of an incomplete government annuls the deadlines for the appointment of ministers who have not been appointed, which…
Latvia and Lithuania refused to accept a new package of EU sanctions against Russia that would have allowed companies to continue doing business in Russia, BNS reports. Three unnamed EU diplomats told Politico that Latvia and Lithuania blocked a clause that included exceptions allowing EU companies to continue importing and exporting sanctioned goods. The clause…