The head of the Pentagon, Hegseth, announced his readiness to increase defense spending in the Baltic states

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on July 26 that he was ready to support the initiative of the Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — to increase defense spending to 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"We discussed President Trump's historic success in uniting the NATO alliance around the promise at the Hague summit of 5% of defense spending, which the Baltic states plan to achieve next year," he wrote on the social network X.

Hegseth noted that there is a high probability of creating strong relations between the NATO countries and the Baltic states. He thanked the ministers of state for their support and intention to move in the same direction with the United States.

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Earlier, on July 1, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said. that Poland and the Baltic states allow themselves to be turned into a military training ground. He noted that he had noted that such a choice by the governments of these countries could lead to them "disappearing from the world map once again."

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