The Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs underscored his country's support of NATO, but also voiced strong admiration for President Donald Trump and his encouragement of NATO allies to boost their spending on defense.
In an interview with Newsmax during a recent visit to Washington, D.C., Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys discussed the Russo-Ukraine War and the Lithuanian attitude toward the 47th president.
"And we must strengthen the Western alliance," he said. "Russia sees the west as vulnerable and would like to destroy NATO. So we must strengthen it to the level of deterrence. We need a strong alliance for Russia to believe it is effective."
Underscoring his point, Budrys warned, "the dismantling of U.S. bases in Europe and a U.S. pullout from NATO would leave Europe very vulnerable" to Russian advances.
In making the case for a continued U.S. presence in NATO, the Lithuanian foreign minister also emphasized that his country will raise its defense spending to 4% of the Gross National Product in 2025 [roughly $3.5 billion] and it will be raised to 5% in 2026 and 6% between 2026-30.
He added that Trump was right to demand that NATO members in Europe take a greater share of their defense spending and to take more responsibility for their security. Lithuania is following Trump's admonition, he said, "because we will spend more on defense than any NATO member."
"And we buy American — more than 20% of our procurement is American," said Budrys. "This, of course, is a profit to the U.S. and we will continue to spend until [the countries bordering Russia] are 100% free of Russia."
Regarding the European Union (of which Lithuania is a member), Budrys said, "We need greater coordination with our fellow members of the EU. We still lack unity and this is something we have to work more on."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.