Gitanas Nauseda put aside Russian threats to increase its military presence in the Baltic and to develop nuclear weapons there if the couple agreed to join the alliance. He said Moscow had kept such weapons in the Kaliningrad enclave for many years and that Finland and Sweden were responding only to Russian aggression. “Sweden and Finland joining NATO will improve the security situation in the Baltic region. We will be able to better monitor and control the Baltic region militarily. “But it will also strengthen NATO as an organization,” Nauseda told the Financial Times. Both countries are members of the EU, but have stayed out of NATO, believing that relations with Russia were better served by staying out of the alliance. But in a sharp reversal, Finland is set to apply for NATO membership in the coming weeks, while Sweden is considering following suit, and both are assessing how they will respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, another non-NATO member. Public opinion in the Nordic countries quickly turned in favor of joining the alliance, urging politicians in both Helsinki and Stockholm to make swift decisions even amid warnings of possible escalation. Russia, which has previously warned of “serious military and political consequences” if it joins NATO, said this week that it would be forced to strengthen its borders with the alliance, which would more than double in size if Finland joined. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda says Sweden and Finland should not react to Russia’s “aggressive rhetoric” © AFP via Getty Images Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia, also warned that nuclear weapons would be transferred to the Baltic, although Lithuanian officials warned for the first time in 2018 that they were in Kaliningrad. “What would it mean for all of us?” Nauseda asked. “There may be some aggressive rhetoric on the part of Russia, maybe even some decisions to increase the military presence here. In any case, the Kaliningrad region is perhaps the most militarized region in Europe, and regular nuclear weapons are already there. “I do not think we should react to this rhetoric.” He said Finland and Sweden “could not waste time and must implement the decisions as soon as possible”, adding that they could see “the rhetoric of the Putin regime becoming more and more aggressive”. Finland wants to make a decision ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid in June, officials in Helsinki say. The Baltic states would like the Swedish island of Gotland, commonly referred to as the aircraft carrier in the Baltic Sea, to be part of NATO as well as the renowned Finnish army. The President of Lithuania approved the proposal of the NATO leader to strengthen the battalions of 1,000 soldiers in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in brigades, which usually number from 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers.

Nauseda also backed Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas’s call for NATO to change its Baltic air policing mission to an air defense, allowing it to shoot down enemy aircraft if necessary. “We need boots on the ground. Forward defense instead of deterrence or quick reinforcement. The most reliable deterrent is the practical deployment of foreign troops here in the Baltic states and Poland. . . “Air policing may be good for peacetime, but that is not an adequate solution, given what is happening in Ukraine.” Lithuania boosts its defense spending to 2.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product this year – well above NATO’s 2 percent target – and targets 3 percent. Nauseda said the money would be spent not only on new equipment, but on infrastructure and accommodation for foreign troops, and would soon double its capacity. Nauseda, who recently met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, stressed that Ukraine needs help not only with anti-aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles, but also with the reconstruction of the country and the opening of logistics corridors that will allow it to export. goods. He accused Russia of “deliberately and cynically committing genocide against the Ukrainian nation” and warned that its leaders in Moscow would be held accountable. “We will see that nothing is forgotten,” Nauseda added.