NEW YORK — Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda revealed Monday he personally pleaded with President Donald Trump to maintain U.S. forces on NATO’s eastern flank as Washington reviews its military footprint in Europe.
Meanwhile, Russia’s war in Ukraine has raged on for more than 4½ years and raised questions about how far Moscow will push into the continent.
Nausėda said during remarks at a fireside chat moderated by Fox News Digital at the Presidential Business Forum on Resilience on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly New York that Lithuania is prepared to provide “very generous host nation support” for American forces to remain in the region.
“I personally sent two letters to the president,” Nausėda said of the plea to keep an American troops’ presence.
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The Pentagon has already begun scaling back some forces and capabilities in Europe, while reported options under review could remove tens of thousands more troops.
The review is part of a broader Pentagon strategy to shift primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defense onto European allies, while reserving a more limited U.S. role. But Washington has also signaled that its retrenchment may not be uniform: Trump said last week that the U.S. was making progress toward a permanent Army base in Poland, one of NATO’s highest-spending members.
That has left frontline allies trying to determine where they fit in with an emerging U.S. strategy that calls for a smaller overall role in Europe while deepening ties with countries Washington views as carrying more of the burden.
The review also comes as Russia’s war with Ukraine has increasingly spilled into NATO territory.
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Lithuania experienced that threat firsthand last week when NATO fighters shot down a drone that crossed into Lithuanian airspace from Belarus. Nausėda later said the aircraft was likely Russian and intended for an attack on Ukraine before veering off course.
The country’s intelligence services warn that Russia is already rebuilding military capabilities near NATO’s eastern borders despite its losses in Ukraine.
Lithuania’s 2026 National Threat Assessment found that a ceasefire or frozen conflict in Ukraine could accelerate that buildup, allowing Moscow to move more troops and equipment back toward permanent bases near the Baltic States and replenish weapons and ammunition depleted during the war.
In that scenario, Lithuanian intelligence assessed Russia could eventually develop enough capability to launch military action against the Baltics and seek an initial regional advantage before NATO could fully respond.
Asked how much time NATO would have if a ceasefire were reached tomorrow, Nausėda declined to put a timeline on the threat but warned that “a ceasefire for Russia may mean” looking for new targets.
He said whether Moscow ultimately tests NATO would depend largely on the alliance’s ability to strengthen its deterrence and demonstrate that it can defend its eastern flank.
Nausėda cast doubt on the prospect of near-term peace talks, saying that “for the time being, Russia is not ready to start the peace negotiations.”
Instead, he said Moscow appears intent on using the approaching winter to increase pressure on Kyiv by striking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and worsening conditions for civilians.
“The winter is coming. Russia knows very well where they should target, and they will target energy infrastructure first of all,” Nausėda said, describing the attacks as an effort to make living conditions in Ukraine as difficult as possible and pressure its leadership toward concessions.
“For these negotiations, I don’t see any ground, at least right now,” he said, adding that talks could become possible “maybe next year.”
The threat to energy infrastructure was particularly resonant for Nausėda, who spoke as Lithuania marked another step in its yearslong effort to insulate itself from energy pressure from Moscow.
Lithuania, marking a new long-term natural gas agreement with U.S. natural gas producer EQT Corp. this week during the president’s trip to New York, began importing U.S. LNG in 2017 and now gets roughly 70% of its LNG from the United States, Nausėda said.
During Monday’s forum, Lithuanian energy company Ignitis signed a new long-term LNG agreement with U.S.-based EQT Corp.
Nausėda said Lithuania’s push for energy independence was shaped by years of experience with Moscow using the country’s dependence on Russian energy as political leverage.
“Our history shows that, all the time, Russians misused our dependencies for their own benefit,” Nausėda said.
Nausėda stressed that Lithuania is also increasing its own defense burden, saying the country is spending 5.4% of GDP on defense while building a national division and preparing to host a full German brigade by the end of 2027.
He said Lithuanian intelligence has periodically warned of a risk that Russia could target critical infrastructure in Lithuania, prompting additional measures to protect energy and other strategic assets.
