The Minister of National Defense, L. Kasčiūnas, first publicly presented the ideas for changing billion-dollar military purchases, not hiding that these are his initiatives. The necessary approval of the military was also not received.
Finally, on Wednesday, he presented the planned changes to the head of the country, G. Nausėda, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
“Everything is fine, we work together as a team,” L. Kasčiūnas said after the meeting, adding that he did not hear any complaints.
Lithuania decided to buy half a dozen German Leopard tanks. L. Kasčiūnas suggested that the tanks should not be bought immediately, as at least 2 billion would be needed, and 15 tanks each in three installments. Allegedly, this would leave money to buy air defense systems faster.
According to Minister L. Kasčiūnas, the army supports this.
“You may have heard the military comment last week that this is fully consistent with our VGT decisions,” he said.
Lithuania has already purchased 90 Boxer infantry fighting vehicles. It is planned to buy another 120, former Minister of National Defense Arvydas Anušauskas said that if it were not for his resignation, the purchase of new “Boxers” could already be finalized in March.
“Deliberations had begun, I would say quite active discussions with the Lithuanian army, but they were not finished. Because we had to come to some common decision in March,” A. Anušauskas told LNK news.
The Minister of National Defense L. Kasčiūnas is now proposing to reconsider whether there should be combat vehicles with caterpillars.
“Keeping in mind that tanks, after all, appear gradually and in stages, how to deliberately make infantry fighting vehicles connect with tanks,” he said.
When the number of exercises in Lithuania increased, it became clear that the “Boxer” does not always catch up with tanks or other tracked vehicles under certain conditions. According to L. Kasčiūnas, it would cost 1.5 times more to change the Boxer to combat vehicles with tracks. And whether the Lithuanian army agrees with this, we expect to hear within a month.
“Those in power are doing everything to exploit certain processes for the benefit of their electoral campaign. There is a lot of inaccurate information”, said Dainius Gaižauskas, representative of the opposition Lithuanian Peasants and Greens Union (LVŽS) in the Seimas.
The ruling Freedom Party prepared a kind of election show from defense, which was in the center of public attention. In a sting to Conservative leaders talking about threats.
“It’s time to stop drawing dark, apocalyptic scenarios for the future of Lithuania,” Aušrinė Armonaitė, the chairperson of the ruling Freedom Party, Minister of Economy and Innovation, said on Wednesday.
Liberals presented how to find an additional half a billion euros for defense – to increase the profit tax by a percentage, there are no people against it. And another 150 million to be taken from the personal income tax (GPM) falling on municipalities, to increase excise taxes on tobacco, alcohol and even fuel, as well as agricultural fuel.
Although just a few months ago, the farmers forced the authorities to abandon this concession when they drove tractors to Vilnius.
“Excise duties on polluting fuel, including the discount for gas oils that are used in agricultural activities”, said A. Armonaitė.
According to Finance Minister Gintarė Skaistė, the liberals did not come up with anything on their own, they simply chose from a list prepared by the ministry.
“All offers are welcome, we are analyzing them all. However, the specific package will apparently become clear after a round of discussions with other politicians has been held,” said Minister G. Skaistė.
Aside from a 1 percent higher corporate tax, the parties are far from unanimous on other sources of additional defense funding. And the longer the delay, the more you will have to pay for the same weaponry, as it becomes more expensive.
See the full LNK news report here:
