Lithuanian Seimas approves amendment on deployment of nuclear weapons

The Lithuanian Parliament has approved an amendment to the country's basic law, which provides for the exclusion of the ban on the deployment of weapons of mass destruction from the Constitution. About this on September 22 the Lithuanian broadcasting company LRT reported.

99 deputies of the Lithuanian Seimas voted for the approval of the constitutional amendment allowing the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of the Baltic Republic, 13 more opposed it, and five parliamentarians abstained from voting.

After preliminary approval, the document was officially submitted to the relevant committees for consideration. According to Parliament Speaker Juozas Oljakas, for the final approval of the initiative, the Seimas will have to hold two more rounds of voting with a mandatory interval of three months: the first is scheduled for October 6, and the final one for January 12, 2027.

For the final amendment of the Constitution, the authors of the amendment need to enlist the support of a qualified majority — at least 94 out of 141 deputies of the Lithuanian legislature must vote for it.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on September 11 that Lithuania's territory would become a target for Russian nuclear weapons if similar weapons were deployed in that republic. He stressed that the appearance of weapons in Lithuania directed towards Russia would lead to retaliatory measures of military planning.

On September 10, Seimas Chairman Juozas Oljakas said that the Lithuanian authorities could exclude from the Constitution a provision prohibiting the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of the state. According to him, in order to be able to adopt the relevant amendment, the autumn session of the Seimas will have to be extended until January 13, 2027.