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The President at the JEF Summit: The fate of Ukraine is the fate of Europe's security as a whole

President of the Republic of Lithuania

May 09, 2025

President Gitanas Nausėda, alongside the leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, took part today in the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) Leaders' Summit in Oslo. The meeting focused on further strengthening cooperation and support for Ukraine, as well as enhancing security and defense in the Baltic Sea, the High North, and the North Atlantic region. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also joined the summit remotely.

According to the Lithuanian President, this JEF Summit is taking place at a critical moment for our region and for Euro-Atlantic security. It is therefore essential to demonstrate our unity and resolve and to define the direction of the JEF's future activities. The Lithuanian leader identified three key conditions for a credible Euro-Atlantic deterrence and defense posture: strong and consistent support for Ukraine, increased defense investment, and the permanent presence of the United States in Europe.

"The fate of Ukraine is the fate of Europe's security as a whole. We welcome the decision to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the JEF. Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration and its robust armed forces are of strategic interest to our region," the President pointed out.

Gitanas Nausėda emphasized that Ukraine's participation in JEF military exercises would support practical cooperation in order to enhance interoperability between Ukrainian and our forces, and facilitate the sharing of experience, particularly in protecting critical infrastructure and applying battlefield lessons, such as drone warfare, military medicine, and countering disinformation.

President Gitanas Nausėda underlined the urgent need for Europe to take its security even more seriously by increasing defense spending to address gaps in military capabilities.

"Lithuania is setting an ambitious example—we are allocating 4% of our GDP to defense and plan to raise this to 5-6% by 2026. We must invest more in our own security—significant defense spending must result in tangible military strength. This is the message we are delivering here in Oslo, and we will continue to raise it at the NATO Summit in The Hague," President Gitanas Nausėda emphasized.

Lithuania supports the JEF as a flexible and effective cooperation platform that enables like-minded nations to act together. It is seen as one of the primary frameworks capable of responding to potential crises. In 2025, the largest-ever JEF exercise, Tarassis25, will take place—coinciding with Russia's Zapad military exercise. This exercise will provide a significant example of how allies can counter Russian military actions in the region.

The Heads of State signed a joint declaration reaffirming their commitment to bolstering support for Ukraine and its defense industry, strengthening the JEF's deterrence and peacetime capabilities, and promoting better awareness of strategic relations across the JEF region.

The JEF is a UK-led, high-readiness, and rapidly deployable force established in 2014 to respond to a wide range of threats, deter adversaries, and contribute to security. The JEF is made up of 10 countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The President's Communication Group