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Lithuania: Committed to 2 Percent

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Posted: January 25th, 2017

By Rolandas Kriščiūnas

Ambassador Rolandas Kriščiūnas is Lithuania's Ambassador to the United States. Prior to that he was the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs (2012-2015) and Vice-Minister of Finance (2009-2012).

The Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – are increasing their defense spending. Estonia already spends 2 percent of its GDP on defense – the NATO spending goal. Latvia and Lithuania plan to hit 2 percent in the coming years. The Cipher Brief’s Kaitlin Lavinder spoke with Lithuanian Ambassador to the U.S. Rolandas Kriščiūnas about why the region is emphasizing defense and what his country is doing to bolster security.

The Cipher Brief: IHS Markit recently came out with its annual defense spending report, and it showed that the Baltics is the fastest growing region, having doubled defense spending from 2014-2016. Why is there this rapid increase?

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