Lithuania urges president-elect Donald Trump to uphold US security commitment

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said Lithuania is on track to meet NATO’s target of 2 per cent of GDP for military spending by 2018.

Lithuania’s president is urging Donald Trump to uphold the United States’ security commitment to Europe amid lingering doubts about the US president-elect’s intentions toward his NATO allies. President Dalia Grybauskaite said on Friday that the US remained “the guarantor of peace after the Second World War in Europe. We expect that this mission, and this understanding, will stay.”

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Trump suggested during the election that only allies paying their fair share might deserve protection from the United States. Grybauskaite said Lithuania is on track to meet NATO’s target of 2 per cent of GDP for military spending by 2018.

She spoke in eastern Lithuania as NATO nations were winding up a major military exercise, part of the alliance’s effort to reassure member countries close to Russia’s border.