Фото: пресс-служба президента Литвы
Lithuanian politicians agreed during a meeting with President Gitanas Nausėda that the constitutional ban on the deployment of nuclear weapons should be amended or repealed.
“Lithuania is the only NATO country with such a constitutional ban. The overwhelming majority of NATO countries have no legal restrictions of this kind. In our region, Poland, Latvia, and Estonia have no such restrictions, while Finland amended its legislation a few weeks ago and removed them,” Nausėda said at the meeting.
“We must send a clear signal that Lithuania is a full participant in NATO’s nuclear deterrence. This is the strongest possible signal to deter enemy aggression. I therefore urge you to discuss the possibility of amending the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania by removing Article 137.
This should become a matter of national consensus. I call on the Speaker of the Seimas to take the initiative in mobilizing the necessary support among members of the Seimas to begin the constitutional amendment procedure,” he added.
After the meeting, Nausėda said the views of the Seimas faction leaders had largely coincided. According to him, they agreed that the article in the Constitution had become outdated and should simply be removed. The Lithuanian president said he favored having the constitutional amendments adopted by the Seimas, as holding a referendum on the issue would take too much time.
Speaker of the Seimas Juozas Olekas confirmed his agreement with Nausėda’s position.
“Today, it seems to me that we reached a common understanding that there is a consensus on proposing the removal of this article from the Constitution and ensuring that Lithuania is not the weak link in NATO’s deterrence chain,” he said, according to LRT.
According to Olekas, he intends to submit the issue to the Seimas on Thursday. He expressed hope that the constitutional amendment would be adopted by the end of the autumn session.