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The President: NATO Summit in Washington will define the future of the Euro-Atlantic area

President of the Republic of Lithuania

June 11, 2024

President Gitanas Nausėda is participating in the Bucharest Nine summit in Riga on Tuesday. The key topics of the meeting include the preparations for the NATO Summit in Washington and long-term support for Ukraine.

Speaking at the leaders' panel, the President emphasized that the Washington NATO Summit should not be just a celebration of the Alliance's 75th anniversary. Given the current geopolitical situation, we cannot afford to merely celebrate; we need concrete results and the necessary decisions to strengthen the security and defense of the entire Euro-Atlantic area.

"The Washington Summit will be a crucial moment for shaping the future of the Euro-Atlantic area. We need to ensure that NATO remains the strongest defense alliance. We need to effectively implement the decisions taken last year in Vilnius and further strengthen NATO's eastern flank," Gitanas Nausėda spoke.

The Lithuanian leader underlined the importance of implementing NATO's regional defense plans and the rotational air defense model. President Gitanas Nausėda said that it is also necessary to work towards greater investment in defense and to make every effort to bolster the defense industry. "Today we see that 2% of GDP is no longer enough—we need to aim for at least 3% in order to strengthen security and defense in a sustainable way," the President pointed out.

According to President Gitanas Nausėda, the Ukraine issue will inevitably be at the center of the NATO Summit in Washington, and it is the progress made on the Ukraine issue that will be the measure of the Summit's success.

"Ukraine's victory is the only way to restore the destabilized international order and prevent the spread of war in Europe in the future," the President pointed out.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Lithuanian President will address the Bucharest Nine leaders' panel on support for Ukraine.

The Bucharest Nine is a group of countries on NATO's eastern flank, formed in 2015 in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The President's Communication Group