MPs Rasa Juknevičienė, Andrius Kubilius and Arvydas Anušauskas of the conservative Homeland Union and Liberal MP Algis Kašėta registered a bill, proposing to increase the number of soldiers participating in the basic military training from 1,000 to 1,500 in 2015, and from 2,000 to 3,000 in 2020.
“At the moment the majority of reservists are citizens who served in the military as conscripts. However, every year many of them are excluded from the military conscripts’ list. Therefore, the reserve is reducing rapidly. If we do not start preparing the reserve at a higher pace, then the minimal number of people will remain who can be called upon to enhance the defensibility of the country in case of mobilisation,” said Juknevičienė.
According to her, as defence funding will substantially grow in 2015, there is an opportunity to augment the military reserve by increasing the number of people who will have participated in basic military training.
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