Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Polish President Karol Nawrocki on October 20 highlighted the importance of the Via Baltica highway for military mobility as they opened a newly reconstructed section near the Polish border.
“While we were sitting at the ceremony, every ten seconds a truck or car passed by. I was informed that some of those trucks were transporting military equipment,” Nauseda said in his remarks. “As we have said before, this route will be very important for military mobility.”
When asked by Polish journalists how the road contributed to the security of the Suwalki Corridor – the narrow stretch linking Lithuania and Poland between Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad region – Nauseda said Via Baltica was a vital artery for the movement of goods, people, and defence forces alike.
Nawrocki echoed the sentiment, saying the upgraded route would help both countries respond swiftly “to potential military or defence threats in the context of troop and equipment movements”.
“It is also a task for me, for the president of Lithuania, and for our friends in Estonia and Latvia to monitor this project from a security perspective,” Nawrocki said. “As countries on NATO’s and the European Union’s eastern flank, we are responsible for the security of our entire region and of Europe as a whole. Poland, in particular, bears special responsibility for security in the Baltic Sea area.”
He added that projects such as Via Baltica and Via Carpathia were made possible through the Three Seas Initiative, which promoted cooperation among Central and Eastern European nations.
“Strengthening solidarity and cooperation – economic, military, and defensive – among the eastern flank countries of NATO is a key objective for both Poland and, I believe, Lithuania,” he said.
The two presidents met on a newly built overpass near the Lithuanian-Polish border, where they shook hands and spoke briefly before attending a joint reception and press conference.
The 12-kilometre section between Marijampole and the Polish border was reconstructed by Lithuanian infrastructure company Kauno Tiltai at a cost of 154.7 million euros.
The ceremony coincided with the 234th anniversary of the Mutual Pledge of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a historical event Nauseda also referenced in his speech.
The Lithuanian leader noted that with the new stretch open, it was now possible to travel from Vilnius to Lisbon entirely on highways.
“You can now reach Warsaw in about four and a half to five hours. That would have been unimaginable 20 or 25 years ago, when the trip took nearly two days,” he said.
This was Nawrocki’s second visit to Lithuania, following his first in early September.
Via Baltica is part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), running 970 kilometres from Warsaw to Tallinn, including 269 kilometres in Lithuania. The road links the Baltic states with Poland and the rest of Europe and is considered strategically significant for both civilian traffic and military logistics. (LRT)