Finland and Sweden joining Nato would boost the security of the Baltic states and reinforce the western military alliance, said Lithuania’s president, urging the two Nordic countries not to waste time in applying.

Gitanas Nauseda brushed aside Russian threats to increase its military presence in the Baltics and deploy nuclear weapons there if the pair agreed to sign up to the alliance. He said Moscow had kept such weapons in its Kaliningrad exclave for many years and that Finland and Sweden were only responding to Russian aggression.

“Sweden and Finland joining Nato would improve the security situation in the Baltic region. We will be able to better supervise and control the Baltic region from the military point of view. But this will also strengthen Nato as an organisation,” Nauseda told the Financial Times.