As European countries have been strengthening their defense after the Ukraine-Russia war, Lithuania, a Baltic Sea coastal nation, has begun moving to amend its laws to allow nuclear weapons to be deployed in the country, following Finland.
According to local outlets LRT and Euronews on the 3rd (local time), 50 Lithuanian members of parliament introduced a proposal to abolish Article 137 of the constitution, which says "weapons of mass destruction and foreign military bases may not be stationed on Lithuanian territory."
In Lithuania, the constitution can be amended if two votes are held three months apart and both secure the support of at least two-thirds of the members of parliament.
President Gitanas Nauseda and leaders of parliamentary parties agreed the day before to delete Article 137 of the constitution. Nauseda said, "Our constitution was adopted when the geopolitical situation was completely different," adding that the clause banning nuclear weapons is "outdated."
However, Seimas Speaker Juozas Olekas said, "There are no plans to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory in peacetime."
Lithuania lies between Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave, and Russia's ally Belarus. If the 65-kilometer land corridor of Suwalki connecting Kaliningrad and Belarus is breached, the territories of the three Baltic states—Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia—would be cut off from other NATO members.
Finland, which shares more than 1,300 kilometers of border with Russia, also decided in parliament on the 17th of last month to abolish its ban on nuclear weapons.