US President Donald Trump said he “will definitely look” into the possibility of opening a permanenert US base in Lithuania — the Baltic country at the eastern NATO flank.
“They are friends of mine, they are great people. So we will certainly look at it,” Trump told LRT reporter when asked whether US would consider establishing a permanent military base in Lithuania.
The comments follow Lithuania’s Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius conversation with John Coale, President Donald Trump’s envoy to neighbouring Belarus, where he told that Vilnius wants US troops to be permanently stationed in the Baltic country amid Russia’s war in Ukraine and a series of hybrid threats, including drone incursions and the instrumentalization of migration by Belarus.
“I am very happy that such idea is not rejected by President Trump,” Sinkevičius said in a Facebook post on Tuesday. “We are ready to provide the best possible conditions for the US.”
He tasked Lithuania’s defence ministry “to do their homeworks” — to present opportunities and conditions under which Lithuania could be welcoming US soldiers.
Around a 1,000 US soldiers are due to arrive in Lithuania at the end of October as part of a rotational deployment. They are expected to serve in the country for nine months. American soldiers also are deployed on rotational bases also in Estonia and Poland.
Lithuania’s push for a permanent US presence follows a similar move by neighbouring Poland.
Marcin Przydacz, head of Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s International Policy Office, said last week that White House has already given a “green light” for a permanent US base in Poland, which “now provides space for executive and subcontracting actions by the Government.”
Lithuania is also to host a German brigade of around 5,000 troops by the end of 2027. Germany has, however, faced difficulties in finding enough personnel willing to serve in Lithuania.
“The German brigade in Lithuania is not only a military capability—it is a clear demonstration of our Allies’ determination to defend NATO’s eastern flank,” Sinkevičius said on Wednesday, during a visit to Berlin where he met with German Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius.
The Prime Minister said Lithuania would meet all its commitments on schedule and create all the necessary conditions for the deployment of a combat-ready brigade by the end of 2027.