‘We will certainly look at it’: Trump says he will consider permanent US military base in Lithuania

US President Donald Trump said he “will definitely look” into the possibility of opening a permanenert US base in Lithuania — the Baltic country at the eastern NATO flank.

“They are friends of mine, they are great people. So we will certainly look at it,” Trump told LRT reporter when asked whether US would consider establishing a permanent military base in Lithuania.

The comments follow Lithuania’s Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius conversation with John Coale, President Donald Trump’s envoy to neighbouring Belarus, where he told that Vilnius wants US troops to be permanently stationed in the Baltic country amid Russia’s war in Ukraine and a series of hybrid threats, including drone incursions and the instrumentalization of migration by Belarus.

“I am very happy that such idea is not rejected by President Trump,” Sinkevičius said in a Facebook post on Tuesday. “We are ready to provide the best possible conditions for the US.”

He tasked Lithuania’s defence ministry “to do their homeworks” — to present opportunities and conditions under which Lithuania could be welcoming US soldiers.

Around a 1,000 US soldiers are due to arrive in Lithuania at the end of October as part of a rotational deployment. They are expected to serve in the country for nine months. American soldiers also are deployed on rotational bases also in Estonia and Poland.