Back in July, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda declared that his country must be part of the NATO alliance's nuclear sharing program: "We would like to be the integral part of this nuclear deterrence," he had said at the time.
He was addressing a big hurdle written into Lithuanian law, namely the existent constitutional ban on nuclear weapons from Lithuanian territory.
But on Tuesday the effort to overturn the ban passed its first big test, with the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, having voted 106-18 to advance a constitutional amendment that would reverse the ban.
Source: LRT nuotr.But there will be more procedural rounds yet to go in the coming months before the change can become a reality:
The change still requires a second vote after a constitutionally mandated three-month waiting period. At least 94 of the Seimas’ 141 members must back it on both occasions. The final vote is expected on January 12.
“This constitutional amendment would enable Lithuania’s armed forces to participate fully in the planning and exercises of all of NATO’s deterrence measures,” said Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, leader of the Liberal Movement parliamentary group.
The effort is obviously hugely provocative to Russia, given the end result could be NATO nukes stationed
