Lithuania says it would pay the cost if US establishes military base

VILNIUS — Lithuania is ready to pay the cost to set up a permanent U.S. military base if Washington should agree to establish one there, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius said on Tuesday. On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would consider Lithuania’s request for a permanent base: “They are friends of mine, they are great people, so we will certainly look at it.” Lithuania, a member of the EU and NATO, borders Russia and Moscow’s close ally Belarus. The United States has kept an armored battalion of almost 1,000 troops there since 2019, in overlapping rotations, meaning the…