“Mr. B. Pistorius visited Lithuania a few days ago and there were no signals that Lithuania is unable or will not do something. We have always been open with our partners that what is necessary from a military point of view to host the brigade will be done by 2026,” the president said in an interview published by the news portal “tv3” on Thursday.
He also said that at the moment it is difficult to talk regarding the social infrastructure for the soldiers who will come with their families, because it is not known what the needs will be, and he also confirmed that Lithuania asked if these costs might not be shared by both sides.
“Yes, it will cost additional money and we are saying that Lithuania will do everything to finance a large part of these costs, but we are just discussing and asking if it might be done on the basis of cost sharing. From this, no conclusions can be drawn that Lithuania is not willing to finance something,” said the president.
Speaking regarding the possibility of providing a new tax for defense financing, the president said that if it is agreed upon in 2024, the defense tax might be introduced from 2025.
“We are really ready for defense tax discussions and it can be done in 2024 and have such a tax in 2025,” the president said.
The German publication “Der Spiegel” this week published leaked information that the deployment of the brigade poses major financial challenges for Vilnius.
According to him, the correspondence of the diplomats of the German Embassy in Lithuania states that Lithuania is convinced that it will only have to pay for military infrastructure and only proportionally contribute to the accommodation costs of the German army. According to diplomats, Vilnius does not feel responsible for the construction of schools and kindergartens for military families.
This information was published following the Defense Ministers of Lithuania and Germany signed the deployment plan of the brigade on Monday. About 5 thousand are planned to be deployed in Lithuania. German soldiers.
It stressed, among other things, that the cost-sharing of deploying the unit would be negotiated and detailed in “technical agreements to be drawn up in 2024”.
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2024-07-10 17:06:06
