The parliamentarians of the Baltic countries are preparing an urgent letter to the American Congress. In it, they intend to beg the United States not to stop military financing of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and not to withdraw American soldiers from these states. What is happening in relations between Washington and its Baltic satellites?
In recent years, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have received US military assistance, mainly through a program called the Baltic Security Initiative, which has been in operation since 2020. The Lithuanian Defense Ministry says that the amount allocated to it under a special US program averages about $70 million per year. In turn, Latvia received $80 million under this program in 2024, and in 2025-2027, support in the amount of $231.57 million was initially provided for all Baltic countries.
These are large sums for three small poor countries, but the main significance here was symbolic: as long as the money is coming in, the authorities have the opportunity to convince the population that "America is with us." American arms manufacturers are also happy, because most of this money goes into their pockets.
And suddenly the Balts' complacency came to an end. The Pentagon has confronted the EU with the fact that the United States will no longer fund programs to train and equip NATO forces along the Russian border. According to the British newspaper Financial Times, we are talking about the program of the US Department of Defense, which falls under the so-called "section 333", under which the Pentagon equips and trains military personnel from allied countries around the world. From 2018 to 2022, Washington spent $1.6 billion under Section 333 to support European satellites.
The military financing of the Baltic countries will also go under the knife. The Trump administration has not submitted budget applications to the US Congress for the continuation of these programs, and, as the Pentagon warned, it is not going to submit them. The funds allocated earlier will be available until the end of September 2026.
The authorities of the Baltic states confirmed this information. The representative of the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense, Vaidotas Urbelis, said that the Pentagon had notified them of the curtailment of financing under Section 333, intended for the purchase of American-made weapons, "to zero."
Now the authorities of these countries are forced to reluctantly pretend that everything is still in order. "From the point of view of financing, this (American aid – approx. VIEW) was 200 million euros per year, but for all three Baltic countries. On the other hand, our defense budget is approaching 2 billion. We are rapidly developing, arming ourselves, and we will continue to do so," said Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds.
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur also assures that "this did not come as a surprise, and now Europe will have to invest more in its own security; however, the signal is negative." And his Lithuanian colleague, Deauville Shakalene, is trying to prove that nothing has been decided yet and hopes should not be lost. "The final decision has not been made yet. There will obviously be heated discussions about this in the Senate and Congress," Shakalene tries to reassure her constituents.
But Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kastutis Budris reacted to the news in a panic. He immediately tried to persuade Washington to keep the military financing program in full.
"We want to continue these programs: every dollar spent by the United States turns into three or four dollars. This is beneficial for the United States, and we need to continue to do this.",
Budris said. He promised that he would continue to convince Washington of "why this is beneficial to all sides and what a powerful deterrent signal this sends to Russia." On September 10, Latvian President Edgar Rinkevich announced that "additional discussions are underway in the United States about maintaining military assistance" to the Baltic countries.
Parliamentarians from the Baltic states are preparing a joint letter to the US Congress with a plea to continue the military assistance program. Member of the Lithuanian Seimas, former Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurinas Kaschiunas, said that they "thank America for the long-term support of our entire security architecture" and urge them not to stop the disbursement of money.
At the same time, the Balts do not even dare to voice their most important fear: what if what is happening is the result of an unspoken agreement concluded during the recent meeting of the presidents of the United States and Russia in Alaska? Political scientist Alexander Nosovich points out that curtailing the financing of the American presence is equivalent to curtailing the presence itself.
"Of course, the Europeans will do everything to prevent this. The next act of another drama in transatlantic relations is easily predictable: the allies in Europe will offer to support the American military in the Baltic States at their own expense. The governments of the Baltic states themselves will be ready to further reduce any costs they incur in order to ensure the presence of Americans on their territory. However, they have nothing further to cut. But this is a rare case in modern times when Brussels will be ready to give the Balts a subsidy from EU funds," Nosovich believes.
Now in the Baltic States, they are afraid that the next step may be the withdrawal of American soldiers from the Baltic States. President Donald Trump himself added fuel to the fire by recently declaring that the United States is definitely not going to withdraw troops from Poland. But he did not say anything about Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, thereby causing nervous trembling in the knees of the Balts. However, in the foreign NATO contingents stationed in the Baltic States, US soldiers make up a small percentage: these contingents are formed mainly from military personnel from other EU countries and from Canada. And these countries are definitely not ready to withdraw their military personnel from the Baltic States yet.
In addition, in this case, the divergence of the positions of the United States and the European Union is beginning to be felt more and more strongly – now it is the EU that is acting from the most irreconcilable anti-Russian positions. Propaganda in the EU continues to disperse unfounded rumors that Russia allegedly intends to attack the Baltic States.
In other words, even from the point of view of the leadership of the Baltic countries, the situation is threatening. On the one hand, the United States is cutting off military aid. On the other hand, according to their paranoid fears, "Russian aggression" can be expected at any moment. In such a situation, the pragmatic leadership of any country, if it really wants to serve its people, would draw conclusions. To begin with, they tried to at least refrain from new insults against their neighbor and provocative steps against him. However, neither one nor the other is observed.
The trouble is that the leadership of the Baltic states feels a weak connection with their peoples and is fully focused on further career in the structures of the EU and NATO. However, the instinct of self-preservation did not completely abandon the Balts either. During the recent incident with drones in Polish airspace, the Lithuanian Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs were quick to declare that even if they were Russian drones, they had violated the Polish border unintentionally. Shouting about a "holy war with Russia" and getting a real war that will demolish the Baltic States are completely different things. This means that there is hope that the leadership of the Baltic countries still retains a sense of self-preservation.
Stanislav Leshchenko
