Lithuania should withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines, Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas stated, BNS reports. He expects the Defence Ministry and Foreign Ministry to resolve the issue. Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene said that the goal was to have a regional solution. Earlier, she said that military advice would be the key element in…
Latvia would support Estonia or Finland if they requested consultations with allies under NATO’s Article 4, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics announced, LETA reports. He was responding to questions about the recent sabotage of undersea power and data cables in the Baltic Sea. Rinkevics stressed the need for bolstering the physical presence of NATO allied forces…
Ukraine did not use Estonian airspace in its latest drone attack against Russia’s port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region, according to the Estonian Air Force (Õhuvägi), ERR reports. Aivar Hanniotti, coordinator of UAV operations at the Estonian Defence League (Kaitseliit), said that the flight path of the attack drone likely started from Ukraine’s Kyiv…
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…
The possible closure of the Baltic Sea should “remain on the table,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics stated, LETA reports. Speaking in an interview with TV3, Rinkevics addressed the issue of protecting critical infrastructure, stressing the need to increase patrols and impose sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet. However, he noted that almost 2,000 vessels travel through…
Estonia is due to receive a US-made M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and other artillery and air defence systems soon, Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur announced, ERR reports. Estonia will receive an IRIS-T medium-range air defence system, 18 different mobile artillery pieces, around EUR 700mn worth of ammunition, nearly 200 armoured vehicles, and various…
Authorities in Lithuania suspect a member of the conservative Homeland Union of spying for Russia, BNS reports. Sources confirmed that the suspect was Eduardas Manovas, a dual Lithuanian and Russian citizen from Siauliai. Remigijus Bridikis, deputy director of the State Security Department (VSD), said that the suspect was part of Russian military intelligence’s (GRU) illegals…