By Milda Seputyte | Updated on Oct 06, 2026 at 11:16 AM
President Donald Trump said the US will consider establishing a permanent military base in Lithuania, prompting an offer from the Baltic state’s government to cover the costs.
“We will certainly look at it,” Trump told reporters in Washington on Monday when asked about the possibility. “They are great people. I know so many people in that country.”
Public broadcaster LRT was first to report the comments.
Hours later, Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius posted on social media that Lithuania would “cover the related costs” of a permanent US base, echoing his statement in an interview with Bloomberg TV last week that the country was “ready to pay the bill” to host US troops.
Read More: Lithuanian Premier Offers to Pay for Permanent US Troop Presence
US troops have rotated intermittently through Lithuania since 2014, with the contingent typically numbering around 1,000 soldiers. The presence shrank this summer as Washington conducted a broader review of its military posture in Europe.
President Gitanas Nauseda said last month that two battalions were on their way to Lithuania, restoring the US presence to levels seen in recent years.
“If the military infrastructure of a main NATO country moves closer to our borders, then of course this cannot be perceived as anything other than a step toward escalating tensions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Interfax news agency. “Russia would be forced to take all necessary measures to reliably ensure its own security.”
A permanent base in Lithuania would mark a significant shift from the rotational model that has governed US military presence in the Baltic states since NATO began reinforcing its eastern flank following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Trump’s comments on a permanent base come as he has also touted “major progress” on plans for a new US Army base in neighboring Poland.