Strengthening European Defense: Insights from Lithuania

BBC Defence Correspondent Jonathan Beale speaks to Dovilė Šakalienė, Lithuania’s Defence Minister.

The Baltic nation, along with its neighbours Latvia and Estonia, share a border with Russia, and have nervously watched the invasion of Ukraine, fearing they could be next.

All three countries have had turbulent relationships with their much larger neighbour, Russia. They were annexed by the Soviet Union during the Second World War, and were subject to decades of rule from Moscow up until the end of the Cold War.

In 2004, Lithuania joined both the European Union and Nato, and just over a decade later, adopted the Euro as its currency. But despite looking westwards, the country has always kept one eye on developments over its eastern border in Russia.

Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014 set off alarm bells in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, and when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia began in 2022, Lithuania and its neighbours began fearing and preparing for the worst..

Presenter: Jonathan Beale Producer: Ben Cooper Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith