Lithuania ready to cover cost if US establishes military base; parliament votes to host foreign arms

Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius (Photo: Reuters).

Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius on Tuesday said the country would cover the cost if the US decides to establish a military base.“Our partners only need to make the political ⁠decision to permanently station troops, and Lithuania is ready to cover the costs involved”, Sinkevicius said.The Lithuanian PM had previously invited the Americans to establish a permanent presence in the country. Since 2019, Lithuania has hosted an armoured US battalion of almost 1,000 troops, which are deployed every few months on a rotational basis.On Monday, the US President Donald Trump said he would consider Lithuania’s request.“They are friends ⁠of mine, they are great people, so we will certainly look at it”, he said.The PM’s remarks arrive on the day Lithuania’s parliament voted, in a first of the two ballots, in favour of removing the constitutional ban on hosting nuclear arms on its territory.If passed by a two-thirds majority, it will remove the prohibitions set after the Nato member broke away from the Soviet Union, more than three decades ago.On Tuesday, Russia warned that Lithuania’s decision to host nuclear arms could lead to new escalations in the region.Asked by reporters how Russia viewed the proposal, as well as another development, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said moving US military infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders can only be seen as a step toward greater tensions.“If the military infrastructure of what is, in effect, Nato’s leading country (the US) is moving closer to our borders, then, of course, this cannot be perceived as anything other than a step towards escalating tensions”, Peskov said.Peskov said the same applied to the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of a neighbouring state.“Neither of these developments will contribute to stability and predictability on the European continent; on the contrary, they will, much to our regret, mark yet another significant escalation of tensions,” he added.