“We need people, we need officers, and we need those who train conscripts. The training cycle is about three years. This means that until we have the right number of non-commissioned armed forces officers and officers to train and educate those conscripts, it is possible to expand the number, but there will be no one to work with those guys,” Šimonytė said.

“It would take five years to train the officers, build the infrastructure and buy the weapons for this training. I do not see why we should not go that way,” the prime minister explained.

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However, Šimonytė admitted short-term goals should also be addressed with discussions on the reform of conscription and raising the numbers of young people called up for compulsory military service.

The prime minister earlier said that the parliamentary parties should find solutions on sustainable sources of funding for the national defence sector.