Lithuania, all adult men must serve in military from 2032

Expansion of troops in response to Russian threat

(Berlin = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Gye-yeon = Lithuania, a Baltic country, has decided to conscript all adult males from 2032.

According to local media LRT, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda announced on the 29th (local time) that the National Defense Committee had agreed on the schedule for introducing such a universal conscription system.

President Nauseda said that considering the population decline trend and cases of people being judged ineligible for military service, the number of young people going to the military will increase from about 5,000 to 7,500 per year.

He added that by setting 2032 as a deadline, we can secure time to prepare the barracks necessary to accommodate soldiers and train instructors.

Some in the political world argued that a universal conscription system should be introduced by 2030 in response to warnings that Russia could invade European North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries within a few years.

Prime Minister Mindaugas Cinquevicius explained that the introduction time was set at the request of the military, saying, “It is unavoidable, but it must be done when ready.”

Lithuania has also established a form of service in which conscripts are required to operate drones and support border guards, fire departments, and rescue teams in addition to regular military service. Women can volunteer to join the military as they do now.

After Lithuania joined NATO in 2004, it changed its military system to focus on professional soldiers and operated a volunteer military system for a while. Then, as security concerns grew due to Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, the country switched to a selective conscription system and began sending some of those subject to conscription to the military for up to nine months against their will.

Lithuania, which borders the Russian extraterritorial territory of Kaliningrad, takes Russia's military threat seriously after the outbreak of the Ukraine war in 2022 and is spending more than 5% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defense. However, as the population continues to decrease, especially among young people, it is difficult to increase the number of troops. The current number of troops is only about 23,000. For this reason, it was decided to request Germany, a World War II war criminal country, to establish a 'Lithuanian Brigade' and to station up to 5,000 German soldiers in the country.

However, as security concerns have recently grown, young people's enthusiasm to join the military is high. This year, as the number of applications for voluntary enlistment exceeded the conscription plan, the military authorities are urging people not to postpone their studies to serve. In a public opinion poll last August, 76% of respondents said they were in favor of universal conscription.