Lithuania should sign bilateral defense pacts with Poland, Germany - Skvernelis

VILNIUS - After Poland shot down several drones that violated its airspace, Saulius Skvernelis, the leader of the opposition Democrats "For Lithuania", says that Lithuania should sign bilateral agreements with neighboring countries so that it could use their capabilities in similar situations.

"We need to talk about bilateral defense agreements with both Poland and Germany, as the latter's brigade is being stationed here, so that in such cases we can also use the capabilities of our neighbors as we probably won't have fighter jets ourselves," Skvernelis told the Ziniu Radijas news radio on Friday.

According to the former speaker of the Seimas, he discussed this with the country's top officials, including the foreign minister, several months ago.

After Russia launched attacks against Ukraine in the early hours of Wednesday, a number of unmanned aerial vehicles repeatedly violated Polish airspace, and some of them were shot down.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that 19 violations of the country's airspace were detected during the night and, according to him, three drones were shot down.

"The main goal of the Polish army and our army is to protect people's lives and health, regardless of how much it costs to shoot down a drone. If it is shot down, the cost will be irrelevant. If it fell on a residential building, hitting an apartment block, the damage would be immeasurable; human lives cannot be measured in monetary terms," Skvernelis underlined.

"Of course, the Polish army has greater capabilities, allies also helped them, and I think we should also expect a similarly adequate response," he said.

In a memorandum on foreign policy presented this week, the opposition conservative Homeland Union - Lithuanian Christian Democrats are calling on the ruling bloc to sing a bilateral defense agreement with Poland, similar to what Warsaw has with Paris.

Signed in early May by French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the agreement stipulates that "in the event of armed aggression on their territories, the parties shall provide mutual assistance, including by military means."

The two leaders stated that such an agreement does not replace NATO, with both countries belonging to the military alliance.

The Lithuanian president's advisor Deividas Matulionis said at the time that Lithuania did not need similar bilateral initiatives as they could raise doubts about trust in NATO.