The three Baltic countries agree on the need to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP. However, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia plan to achieve the target at their own pace.
“Each country individually will increase the defence investment toward 3% of GDP,” Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins told reporters after meeting with his Lithuanian and Estonian counterparts in Riga on December 9.
Karins did not elaborate on when Latvia, which currently spent 2.2% of its GDP on defence, could reach the target.
Meanwhile, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said that her country might achieve it next year.
The 2023 budget, adopted by the Lithuanian parliament in late November, allows raising defence spending to 3% of GDP through borrowed funds, provided that the overall government deficit for the year does not exceed 4.9% of GDP.
According to Simonyte, Lithuania will have to carry out several defence-related projects next year, meaning that actual defence spending could reach 3% of GDP.
“Next year, we will have to implement a number of projects related to military mobility projects and host nation support, which under NATO standards are not included in the defence spending percentage,” the prime minister said.
“This means that the real spending on Lithuania’s defence and security will be between 2.5% and 3% of GDP in any case next year,” she added.
If Lithuania does not borrow for defence needs next year, its allocated defence budget will account for 2.52% of GDP, the same as this year.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said that her country would surpass the 3% of GDP target in two years.
“As to Estonia’s defence budget, it will exceed 3% in 2024,” she said. “Our trajectory has been mapped out, as have our purchases.”
Estonia’s defence budget is expected to rise to 2.9% of GDP next year from 2.3% currently. (LRT/Business World Magazine)
