Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis issued a stark call for Europe to develop true strategic autonomy, declaring that genuine transatlantic partnership can only exist between equals rather than dependent allies.
"True partnership is only possible between equals," Landsbergis stated in remarks widely circulated across European capitals. "It's time for Europe to wake up. It's time for Europe to grow up."
The Foreign Minister's pointed comments reflect Lithuania's front-line perspective on European security, where geographic proximity to Russia creates an acute awareness of strategic realities that other European allies may not feel as immediately.
Lithuania has long exceeded NATO's 2% defense spending target, investing heavily in its own security infrastructure even as larger European nations debated burden-sharing arrangements. Now Baltic leaders are pushing the entire continent to adopt their level of strategic seriousness.
"Lithuania understood this long ago and invests in its own security," Landsbergis said. "Now we are trying to wake up the rest of the continent so that together we will be invincible."
The timing of his remarks coincides with growing European anxiety about American reliability following the Trump administration's Greenland threats and inconsistent NATO commitments. Baltic officials argue that Europe's dependence on Washington creates strategic vulnerability every four years when US elections could fundamentally alter transatlantic arrangements.
"When Europe has its own hard power, we won't need to fear who wins American elections," Landsbergis argued. "We'll be safe because we'll be strong."
In the Baltics, as on NATO's eastern flank, geography and history create an acute awareness of security realities. Estonia, , and lived under Soviet occupation for half a century and achieved independence only in 1991—experiences that shape their threat assessments differently from allies farther from .
