As the European Union scrambles to respond to unsettling geopolitical conditions, three of the bloc’s smaller member states by the Baltic Sea – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – are already leading by example.
Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the three have been unwavering in their financial, moral, and military support for their southern neighbor. They have committed about 1.7% of gross domestic product to that cause. (The United States and the United Kingdom have provided 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively.)
In addition, the three governments have resolutely strengthened their defenses, doing so well before the Trump administration’s tougher demands for NATO allies in Europe to increase their military spending. In February, the Baltics also completely disconnected from the Russian electricity supply system.
Their resolve has influenced nearby countries that also share a land border, a strategic waterway, or both with Russia. Nordic nations are frankly discussing increasing defense budgets to finance military aid for Ukraine. Support for Ukraine among Danes, Swedes, and Finns is sky-high. And Germany asked the EU to activate a clause that would allow it to rapidly increase defense spending.
What accounts for the forward-looking action by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania? For many of their citizens, it is their shared history with Ukraine in their own long struggles to break free from Moscow.
In 1989, the people of the three nations joined hands – literally, in a 430-mile-long human chain – to protest Soviet rule. Dubbed the Baltic Way, this unified expression of nonviolent resistance helped bring about the end of the Soviet Union two years later.
That same commitment to democratic ideals and national sovereignty shines a beacon for Europe today.
Two former Baltic prime ministers now hold key positions in the EU: Estonia’s Kaja Kallas is vice president and head of foreign affairs; Lithuania’s Andrius Kubilius heads the defense portfolio.
The Baltic nations’ 7.5 million citizens still feel pressure from Moscow. Russia continues to target them with overt threats and covert disinformation campaigns. It is not only empathy and self-preservation that drive the emphasis on strengthening both Ukraine and Europe; the Baltic people have long stood against oppression and for sovereignty.
As Lithuanian analyst and writer Inga Samoškaitė wrote last year, the 1989 protest “did not create this commitment to freedom; it made visible what was already there.” Perhaps the current demands on the EU will do the same for Europe.
