Lithuania ready to pay for permanent US troop deployment

Lithuania is ready to cover the costs of permanently stationing US troops in the country and would welcome a US military base, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said in an interview with Bloomberg, LRT reported, citing The Washington Sun.

Asked on Tuesday about a permanent US base, Sinkevičius said Lithuania would pursue the proposal if the United States were willing and would provide the best possible conditions for troops and a base.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged allies to pay the costs of maintaining American troops stationed in their countries. In 2019, he backed a plan requiring host countries to cover those costs and pay an additional 50 percent. He recently also called on European countries to reimburse the United States for what he said were hundreds of billions of dollars provided “for free” to Ukraine and NATO. The remarks followed reports that the war in Iran was depleting ammunition stocks.

Sinkevičius has also discussed a permanent US troop presence with John Coale, the US special envoy for Belarus. Coale visited Minsk this month and helped negotiate the release of political prisoners held in Belarus.

After US forces withdrew from Lithuania earlier this year, up to 1,000 American troops returned. They are now stationed in the country on a rotational basis, as US troops generally are in other Eastern European countries. Sinkevičius said Lithuania was pleased the Trump administration had taken its request for US troops into account and that their presence made the country feel safer.

The White House referred The Washington Sun to the US Department of Defense, which had not responded to a request for comment. The US Embassy in Lithuania also did not respond to a request for more information.

Trump said last week that significant progress had been made toward establishing a permanent US military base in neighbouring Poland. Polish President Karol Nawrocki has proposed calling it “Fort Trump.”

Sinkevičius spoke to Bloomberg in Brussels, where he attended meetings of EU and NATO leaders. He said he had discussed defence against Russia and its close ally Belarus with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Lithuania is due to hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2027. Sinkevičius said defence would be a key priority, alongside supporting EU enlargement and the accession of countries including Ukraine and Moldova.