Vilnius Summit Chairs' Statement
President of the Republic of Lithuania
June 02, 2025
The Heads of State and Government of the Bucharest Nine - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia - and the Nordic countries - Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden - met today in Vilnius. We warmly welcome the participation of the NATO Secretary General as well as the President of Ukraine to this meeting.
We met today at a pivotal moment when the security environment continues to deteriorate as Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine claims lives, causes civilian suffering and violates international norms and agreements. Russia remains the most significant, long term, and direct threat to Euro-Atlantic security and NATO must further adapt its approach towards Russia. The Alliance must be prepared for all possible contingencies.
Today's meeting is a manifestation of our commitment to widen and deepen our cooperation on security and defence between the Bucharest Nine countries and the Nordic Allies.
Together, we assessed preparations for the upcoming NATO Summit in The Hague, including our firm commitment to significantly increased defence spending and enhanced defence industrial capacity against the backdrop of Russia's threat to Euro-Atlantic security and its ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine.
NATO's key purpose and greatest responsibility is to ensure our collective defence in accordance with the Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. The Hague Summit must take further decisions to build a stronger Alliance, better prepared to defend every inch of Allied territory. In this regard, we underline the decisions taken at the NATO Madrid, Vilnius, and Washington Summits, including to substantially strengthen Allied posture for deterrence and forward defence in the Eastern flank, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, as well as to increase defence spending and enhance the transatlantic defence industrial capacity.
The transatlantic bond continues to be the cornerstone of our collective defence. Increased defence spending by non-US Allies, as well as the US military presence in NATO's Eastern flank and extended deterrence commitments remain vital for Euro-Atlantic security.
We are moving towards reaching at least 5 per cent of GDP on defence and defence-related investments to match security threats and challenges. We call on all Allies to urgently invest more, individually and collectively, to ensure fully resourced plans and credible capabilities to prepare for, deter and defend. We remain committed to providing the necessary forces, capabilities, resources, and infrastructure for our new plans, to be prepared for high-intensity and multi-domain collective defence.
Strengthening national and Alliance-wide preparedness for deterrence and defence requires whole-of-government approach in all domains. That includes reinforcement of transport infrastructure, acquisition of necessary assets - all critical for rapid, safe and efficient movement of Allied forces and capabilities, and developing relevant infrastructure. All our actions must be adequately resourced and enabled. An important element in strengthening NATO's deterrence and defence capabilities is the extension of the NATO Pipeline System on the Eastern flank.
We will accelerate efforts in boosting the Trans-Atlantic defence industry - expanded and faster production, smarter procurement, and more multinational projects. The European Commission's and the EEAS' White Paper for European Defence - Readiness 2030 and the ReArm Europe Plan are significant steps towards turning Europe's and the EU's strategic ambition into real capabilities. Stronger European contributions within NATO means a stronger Alliance. We encourage maximizing the full potential of and further strengthening NATO-EU cooperation, in particular on delivering military capabilities and military mobility for European security while removing regulatory barriers. This cooperation should remain inclusive and allow for participation of non-EU Allies.
We remain steadfast in condemning Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
We reaffirm our unwavering support for Ukraine's independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. Territorial integrity is a fundamental and irreplaceable principle of international law, which must be respected and always protected. We reaffirm that the security of Ukraine is integral part of the security of the Euro-Atlantic region.
We will continue our political, military, economic and humanitarian support to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position to reach a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace, based on the principles of the UN Charter and international law. We reaffirm our support to the US efforts in this regard. We welcome the Coalition of the Willing peace and security efforts initiated by the United Kingdom and France, and remain committed to contribute. We commend Ukraine for its determination to engage in a peace process. So far, Russia has showed no genuine interest in peace.
The Summit in The Hague must demonstrate NATO's continued support and commitment to Ukraine. We stand firm on Allied decision and commitment regarding Ukraine's irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership. Ukraine has the right to choose its own security arrangements and to decide its own future, free from outside interference.
We will further strengthen our efforts in constraining Russia, including its ability to wage a war of aggression against Ukraine, by stepping up pressure on Russia, including EU sanctions, and stand ready to adopt new ones. We will work continuously to ensure Russia's international accountability for the crime of aggression against Ukraine as well as the war crimes and all atrocities. Russia's assets should remain immobilised until Russia ceases its war of aggression against Ukraine and compensates it for the damage caused by this war.
We condemn any form of support to Russia's aggression against Ukraine and urge all those facilitating to stop it. Belarus continues to enable Russia's war by making available its territory and infrastructure. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Iran are fuelling it by providing direct military support, while the PRC continues to be its decisive enabler.
We strongly condemn Russia's intensifying and highly confrontational actions against Europe. Russia's hybrid threats and actions include sabotage, disinformation, cyberattacks, instrumentalization of migration - particularly at the borders between Belarus and NATO, information manipulation, election interference, the use of a so called "shadow fleet", and airspace violations. Russia seeks to destabilize our security, aims at disrupting support to Ukraine and undermining our societies. These malign efforts will not prevail. Collectively, we will continue to coordinate our actions and strategic communication, increase information sharing, monitoring, surveillance to better anticipate, deter, and counter all these destabilising activities.
We commend the Republic of Moldova for its efforts to maintain stability and advance reforms on its European path and we will continue to further strengthen our support for Chisinau. We will continue to strive for more strategic, more coherent and more effective partnerships, in particular with the European Union, as well as with partners in our neighbourhood, in the Indo-Pacific and in the South.
We look forward to the next meeting in Romania in 2026.
Gitanas Nausėda, President of the Republic of Lithuania
Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland
Nicușor Dan, President of Romania
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