New Seimas set to approve commitment to grant 2% to defence in 2018

The document has been proposed by Social Democratic MP Gediminas Kirkilas who headed the parliamentary European Affairs Committee in the last term and will be appointed to the post for the 2016-2020 term.

According to the document, Lithuania should follow the earlier parliamentary agreement on the strategic guidelines of Lithuania’s foreign, security and defense policies for the 2014-2020 period. With the agreement, the earlier parliament committed itself to meeting the obligation to NATO of granting 2 percent of the GDP to defense by 2020, however, there is also a political resolution to reach the goal by 2018 already.

The document also pledges support to the Eastern Partnership policy goals. The Seimas undertakes the obligation of completing membership negotiations with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Under the proposed document, Lithuania should step up ties with the United States, Germany, France, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Nordic and other democratic countries.

According to the document, the parliament, the president and the government together with political parties represented in the parliament agree on national strategic goals in foreign, security and defense policy, as well as follow the tradition of consensus-based foreign, security and defense policy.