{"id":6396,"date":"2025-10-22T13:42:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T13:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/?p=6396"},"modified":"2025-10-27T18:46:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:46:56","slug":"eu-countrys-defense-minister-quits-over-budget-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/22\/eu-countrys-defense-minister-quits-over-budget-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"EU country\u2019s defense minister quits over budget dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lithuania\u2019s leadership has been at odds over record military spending<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene has announced her resignation following a week-long rift with Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene over the country’s military budget.<\/p>\n

The dispute reportedly stemmed from an off-the-record meeting on October 14 where Defense Ministry staff encouraged journalists to pressure the government to raise its budget allocation to 5% of Lithuania’s GDP, as demanded by NATO.<\/p>\n

The prime minister slammed the meeting as “sabotage”<\/em> and declared she had lost confidence in the defense minister.<\/p>\n

Sakaliene said on Facebook on Wednesday she was stepping down due to “different fundamental views,”<\/em> after repeated clashes with Ruginiene about the 2026 defense budget.
<\/em><\/p>\n

“Just a month ago, I had hoped we could work together, but unfortunately, we cannot,”<\/em> Sakaliene wrote.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"RT\"
EU country\u2019s government at odds over record military spend<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This week, the Baltic nation’s government endorsed a record defense budget of €4.79 billion ($5.6 billion), equal to 5.38% of GDP, and in line with NATO’s drive to boost military spending. The draft will be debated before final parliamentary approval later this year.<\/p>\n

Under pressure from US President Donald Trump, European NATO members have promised to increase their military budgets to 5% of GDP. EU governments have also announced large-scale military investments, citing an alleged threat posed by Russia – a claim Moscow denies.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin has dismissed allegations of hostile intent toward Western nations as “nonsense”<\/em> and fearmongering, and has condemned what it calls the West’s “reckless militarization.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Lithuania, along with its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, has taken a particularly hardline stance toward Moscow since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lithuania\u2019s leadership has been at odds over record military spending Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene has announced her resignation following a week-long rift with Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene over the country’s military budget. The dispute reportedly stemmed from an off-the-record meeting on October 14 where Defense Ministry staff encouraged journalists…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6396"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6396"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6398,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6396\/revisions\/6398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}