Address by Gitanas NausÄ—da, President of the Republic of Lithuania, at the DAIMEX Baltic 2026 Conference

Distinguished guests,

Allied partners,

Industry leaders,

Welcome to Lithuania!

It is my honor to open the inaugural DAIMEX Baltic conference here in Vilnius. What makes this forum special is that it was born from industry initiative. It reflects the general understanding prevalent in our region that geography is never neutral, and security should never be taken for granted.

The war in Ukraine has given to all of us the most consequential lesson in modern defense since the Cold War. It has shown us with absolute clarity that industrial capacity is also battlefield capacity.

The factory floor and the front line are now part of the same equation. The company that manufactures a precision component, the engineer who writes flight control software, the investor who backs an autonomous systems startup - each of them is contributing to deterrence just as surely as any soldier.

Lithuania, together with Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Finland, forms NATO's first line of defense on the eastern flank. The Baltic States will be the first to meet and exceed the Hague commitment of 5 percent of GDP for defense. Not in a decade. Not in the near future. Lithuania is already there today! We do not treat our defense spending as a burden, but as the price of sovereignty - and as an engine of growth.

The Baltic Defense Line and Eastern Shield alone represent billions of euros in procurement that will result in new fortifications, logistics, air defense, and underground infrastructure. We fully expect the defense industry to step up its capacity and deliver fast and on time. The benefit of building robust defense of our region and strengthening deterrence will be felt throughout the entire Alliance.

This opportunity is open to every partner in this room. Rheinmetall has chosen Lithuania for regional ammunition production; KNDS France and KNDS Germany - for the assembling and maintenance of military equipment; Lockheed Martin - for its regional office.

Lithuania's government has made it a priority to remove every obstacle that stands between a great idea and a functioning production line on Lithuanian soil. We provide a green corridor for defense industry investments. Our legal environment is predictable, administrative procedures are fast, the workforce is skilled, multilingual, and deeply embedded in precision manufacturing and advanced engineering. We are not building this capacity from scratch - we are scaling what already works.

Ladies and gentlemen,

What we offer to the defense industry is something more valuable than incentives or tax rates: we offer urgency. A government that moves fast, a nation that takes its security seriously - and is prepared to build it here and now, with partners who share our values and commitment.

I invite you to see Lithuania not only as a destination for a sales pitch, but as a place to build something lasting - for your company, for our region, and for the Alliance.

Let those conversations begin today!