As one of his first acts in office, Lithuania's new prime minister has pledged to boost the country's military spending. On Nov. 22, the Lithuanian parliament appointed former Interior Minister Saulius Skvernelis to lead the country. After his inauguration, Skvernelis vowed to raise defense expenditures from 1.4 percent of gross domestic product to 2 percent by 2018, if not sooner. He added that Lithuania still has "full trust in the United States, as well as other partners in NATO." Skvernelis' comments were no doubt made in response to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's repeated demands that NATO countries honor their commitment to spend 2 percent of their GDPs on defense, or risk losing the United States' support. As of now, only four NATO members besides the United States — the United Kingdom, Greece, Poland and Estonia — consistently meet the bloc's spending requirement.