Lithuania PM presents annual government report to parliament

“Lithuania constructed a Liquefied Natural Gas terminal in time, in one and a half years, in spite of the technological complexity of the project. It has fundamentally shifted energy security situation in the Baltic region to our benefit,” said Butkevičius.

According to the prime minister, the Government “successfully passed the euro adoption exam”. He added that moving from the litas to the euro on 1 January 2015 was a great way to tell the international media about Lithuania’s achievements.

Butkevičius also said that last year the Government worked in the state of constant alert because of the geopolitical crisis caused by Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

Butkevičius underlined that the Government observed the agreement of parliamentary political parties to boost defence spending to 2 percent of GDP by 2020 and the current Cabinet raised defence budget by a fifth.

“Additional funds were designated to improve and modernise our Armed Forces – a rapid reaction force ready to oppose to hybrid threats was created, we started acquiring more powerful weapons, restoring our ammunition reserves,” the prime minister listed the Government’s achievements.

According to Butkevičius, US ground forces were deployed in Lithuania, NATO Air Policing Mission over the Baltics was enhanced, large-scale military exercises were organised and showed that NATO partnership is protecting Lithuania.

“A vast list of measures strengthening security was confirmed at the NATO Summit in Wales last September. It provides for continuing rotation of allied military units in the region, establishing NATO command and control centre in Lithuania, creating Very High Readiness Joint Task Force,” said the prime minister.