Defence Delegation to the Baltics

In collaboration with DI Defence, the Danish Embassies in Vilnius and Riga are pleased to invite you to participate in an export promotion visit to Lithuania and Latvia. This event aims to explore opportunities for enhancing defence cooperation in light of the current geopolitical situation, as well as the steadfast military support to Ukraine by the three Baltic countries. The tour offers a unique platform for Danish companies to highlight themselves, engage with key stakeholders from the Ministries, National Armed Forces, and potential collaborators, fostering the establishment of new contacts with influential decision-makers. Given Denmark’s active defence related involvement in the Baltic countries, there are significant prospects to further strengthen collaboration in the field of defence and security capabilities.

In Lithuania, parliament has just pass a new defence taxation law and the allocation for national defence in 2024 stands at 2.8% of GDP with plans to allocate 3% of GDP from 2025. The defence spending in Latvia is planned to be 2.4% of GDP in 2024, with plans to allocate 2.5% in 2025 and 3% of GDP in 2027. Besides the general increase in defence spending, both Lithuania and Latvia also meet NATO’s goal of spending at least 20% of the defence budget on military equipment investments.

Development of an increase in both national forces and international presence is significant in both countries. Noteworthy in Lithuania is the preparations for a full permanent deployment of full German brigade, and in Latvia the currently largest military training area in the Baltics, Ādaži outside of Riga, is no longer sufficient for all the exercise activities following the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Therefore, the Latvian government took the decision in 2023 to initiate establishment of the Selonia New Military Training Facility, covering an expansive territory of 25,605 hectares.

Defence industry in the Baltics is developing fast, not the least due to the needs stemming from the war in Ukraine. Latvia has taken leadership of a Drone Coalition, and Lithuania leads the demining coalition. Drone production, communication, surveillance, reconnaissance and laser technologies are commercial strongpoints and cyber domain industry is growing in the Baltics, both in order to sustain donations to Ukraine but also because the Baltics, Poland, Finland, Norway agreed on ‘drone wall’ to protect external borders with Russia and Belarus. Among others, there exist an appetite to expand and develop cooperation in area as logistics, naval maritime related industry and munition/ explosive production. Finally, it is recognized that Latvian and Lithuanian based companies has the ability to easily engage in Ukraine due to the common history and language base.

The programme is tentative and subject to adjustments.

For more information, please contact:

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