The meeting will also include Latvian President Andris Bērziņš and Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip. During the meeting with President Obama, leaders of the three Baltic States will discuss air police mission in the countries, Kaliningrad's militarization and other defense issues.
Commenting on the summit, President Grybauskaitė says the results achieved in Chicago will put the finishing touches to ensuring that Lithuania's NATO membership becomes real.
"Issues very important for us, Lithuania, and the whole Baltic region, are being solved at the NATO summit. There's a high chance that we, the three Baltic leaders, will meet with US President Barack Obama on Sunday. As the decisions that will be endorsed on Monday and Sunday will practically guarantee long-term military security for the Baltic states, i.e., the air policing mission above the Baltic states will be carried out not for every four or three years, but it will become extended. We expect such endorsement, and there's preliminary agreement," Grybauskaitė said at a meeting with the Lithuanian community in Lemont on Friday.
"This (NATO summit – BNS) meeting is putting the finishing touches to what we have really sought, i.e., real NATO membership and real security," she said.
On 8 February, NATO decided to extend the Baltic Air Policing mission. The adopted document itself is classified but sources told BNS it says mission reviews will take place beyond 2018. Ambassadors in Brussels formally agreed that it would be a long-term mission with regular reviews, and did not set a final deadline. Meanwhile the Baltic states committed themselves to increasing their contribution.
Lithuania wants the air policing mission's continuity to be underlined in the NATO summit's declaration but this time without any mention of 2018.
The Lithuanian president also said that in Chicago "the Baltic defense plans will be really confirmed, and it will be said once again that missile defense will cover all NATO member countries."
"Why am I mentioning this as a very important thing? Since Russia has always tried to press NATO and the US to allow it to cover the Baltic states with its missile defense capabilities. So practically it would mean that NATO member countries would be divided. We have objected to that, and personally I was particularly strict about that two years ago in Lisbon. I am very glad that we have managed to change the United States' position and preserve integrity of the NATO missile defense. These are very important decisions for Lithuania and all Baltic states we definitely expect, and they are pretty much made," Grybauskaitė said.
The Lithuanian president said she was surprised after becoming president in 2009 that being NATO member countries, the Baltic states had no NATO defense plans at that time.
"It means that we were only formal member countries, not real and not protected member countries. So I had to make a bit of a fuss, it was not easy, and even a bit of confrontation with the US administration at first… But now our relations are in fact very good. Hillary Clinton, for example, has come to Lithuania three times already, and I have met with President Obama four times already at various multinational forums," she said.
Grybauskaitė also called on the local Lithuanian community to try to make America keep its attention to the Baltic states. "You could try, no matter how political powers change in America, to make them not to forget that there's Europe, and there are the Baltic states there, and that Europe is very important for America. For attention and understanding that the Baltic states are in a very difficult region in political and economic terms to remain. We have neighbors that are becoming increasingly complicated," Grybauskaitė said.
Meanwhile talking about the criteria for defense funding in Lithuania should reach 2 percent of GDP, Grybauskaitė said it would mean additional expenses worth LTL 1 billion (EUR 0.29 billion).
"The political goal is good, but it would mean additional LTL 1 billion to reach 2 percent. One billion litas. I just want to say for you to imagine the amount. Lithuania's annual national budget without EU money is LTL 18 billion. The political intension is good but we have to face the reality," the Lithuanian president said.
