Lithuanian prime minister fails to present alternative defence plans to parliamentary committee

Lithuania’s prime minister, Inga Ruginienė, did not provide lawmakers with details of her previously announced alternative defence plans during a closed-door meeting of the Seimas National Security and Defence Committee (NSGK) on Tuesday, opposition members said.

The committee’s deputy chairman, conservative MP Laurynas Kasčiūnas, told reporters after the session that Ruginienė had only presented standard NATO defence planning scenarios, despite earlier public statements about having contingency plans B, C, and D in case of a transatlantic alliance breakdown.

“She was one of the few who spoke the least,” said Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, leader of the opposition Liberal Movement, adding that the prime minister “either did not understand our questions or avoided them.” The meeting had been called specifically to discuss the alternative scenarios Ruginienė mentioned in a January interview with news portal Delfi, where she claimed the government had prepared multiple fallback options for national security.

Army chief Raimundas Vaikšnoras confirmed that operational and tactical plans were presented but declined to elaborate due to classification. He stressed that Lithuania’s military remains ready to defend the country “this very evening” regardless of political or geopolitical shifts.

The debate follows heightened concerns over potential NATO fractures after former US president Donald Trump threatened to remove Greenland from the alliance’s protection and repeatedly criticised European defence spending. Kasčiūnas warned that Lithuania lacks clear answers on how to organise its defence if US support wavers. “Our main goal is to keep America in Europe—there’s no question about that—but if something happens, do we know how to defend ourselves? Today, we didn’t get those answers,” he said.

Čmilytė-Nielsen accused the ruling Social Democrats of a “leadership vacuum,” arguing that politicians are failing to engage seriously with the crisis. “The impression is that the political elite doesn’t fully grasp the situation and prefers to hide behind the military,” she said. “The army is doing its job, but politicians must also play their part in a crisis.”