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Russia is testing us, therefore we have to jointly neutralize the airspace violations, claims D. Šakalienė in Brussels

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of National Defence

2025-10-16
International cooperation | Minister's news | Security and defense policy

While attending the North Atlantic Council Defence session in Brussels, Minister of National Defence Dovilė Šakalienė underscored the necessity to step Allied air defence, defence industry capabilities, support to Ukraine and pressure on russia.

"The increasingly frequent incursions of russian UAVS and aircraft into NATO airspace show that we have transition from air policing mission to air defence: to neutralize the drones and other air threats, strengthen ground-based air defence capabilities, and ensure a persistent forward presence of NATO air defence capabilities in the country," said D. Šakalienė.

Minister underlined that in the wake of UAV incursions in Estonian, Latvian, Polish, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Romanian and Finish airspace required swift solutions. NATO launched Operation Eastern Sentry, a multilayered air defence reinforcing the Alliance across the eastern flank, in response to the incidents.

"Lithuania is actively working on strengthening counter-drone capabilities and ground-based defence, as well as procuring additional sensors and systems for drone neutralization. This is where Ukraine's experience should be made use of for developing a joint NATO-EU counter-UAV concept," D. Šakalienė stated.

The NATO Defence Ministerial also addressed the efforts of every Ally to increase defence spending to reach the 5% of GDP target agreed to at The Hague. It was underscored that this was essential in order to deliver on deterrence and defence. Minister presented to the counterparts Lithuania's 5.38% of GDP target settled for in the draft national budget.

Significant attention was given to defence industry enhancement. Even though the Alliance has achieved significant progress in increasing ammunition, craft and missile production, the supply stills fails to meet the demand in NATO countries and Ukraine. NATO plays an important role of a coordinator to speed up the production: namely, combines the demand of the Allies, shares best practices on supply chain, and facilitates cooperation.