Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia intend to triple their annual spending on arms and military equipment to $670 million by 2018 from 2014 thanks to fears of Russia after its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region, an HIS Markit report said Thursday.
By 2020, it said, the combined overall defense budgets of the three Baltic republics will reach an estimated $2.1 billion, more than double what it was when the countries entered NATO in 2004 and the fastest such growth in any region worldwide.
“We have seen political confrontation between Russia and the West in the past 2-1/2 years escalate to military assertiveness and …read more
Source: Voice of America
