Lithuania is ready to pay the cost of setting up a permanent US military base if Washington agrees to establish one, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius said on Tuesday. Reuters reported his remarks from Vilnius.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump said he would consider Lithuania’s request for a permanent base. Sinkevicius said he proposed turning the current rotational presence into a permanent one at a meeting with Trump’s envoy John Coale last month.

The United States has kept an armoured battalion of almost 1,000 troops in Lithuania since 2019, in overlapping rotations. Lithuania, a member of the EU and NATO, borders Russia and Moscow’s close ally Belarus.

“Our partners only need to make the political decision to permanently station troops, and Lithuania is ready to cover the costs involved,” Sinkevicius wrote on Facebook. He called the base a critically important guarantee of deterrence and security.

The move signals how seriously frontline NATO states take the threat from Moscow. It also fits Trump’s push for allies to pay more for their own defense. Talks on the base are expected to continue between the two governments.