State leaders shouldn't frighten people - Lithuanian PM

VILNIUS - Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas says he and Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene have no differences in their views on the security situation. He stresses, however, that state leaders should not frighten people.

"There is certainly no difference in our positions when in comes to the level of Lithuania's preparedness. In fact, Lithuania has never been better prepared than it is now, and even greater and more important steps are being taken to ensure that our preparedness, the preparedness of the defense sector, the preparedness of the army, is the biggest deterrent, so that nobody ever tries to threaten us in any way. There's really no difference of opinion here," the prime minister told reporters in Klaipeda on Friday.

In his words, there's no need to frighten people with constant talking about threats.

"There's no need to frighten people because a frightened, anxious person is psychologically less productive, falls into depression, is reluctant to invest, and it is in the best interest of all of us that every person in Lithuania is as calm as possible, that people do their job, invest, and thus generate more revenue for the budget and improve our defense possibilities," Paluckas said.

"All state leaders should not intimidate the public when they really don't need to do so," he added.

Lithuania is "in the safest situation "because the region has never had both so much investments in defense and the political will, the prime minister told the Ziniu Radijas news radio earlier this week.

For her part, Sakaliene told a podcast the opposite, saying that "we are in the most threatening situation in decades".

Paluckas and Sakaliene made the remarks after US President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in his current term on Wednesday and agreed to meet to discuss possible peace in Ukraine.

The US president said he had a "long and very productive" conversation with Putin, during which they agreed to immediately start negotiations to end Russia's almost three-year-long large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Trump also said his meeting with the Russian president on ending the war in Ukraine may take place in Saudi Arabia.

The two president's conversation has also sparked concerns abroad that Ukraine might not be included in negotiations over its fate, with Trump stating that Kyiv's desire to join NATO is "impractical".