Any decision by Australia to send retired fighter jets to aid Ukraine’s resistance to invading Russian forces would be welcomed by “cheering” from Europe, according to Lithuania’s foreign minister.

The Lithuanian capital of Vilnius is hosting the Nato leader summit this week, less than 40 kilometres from the border with Kremlin ally Belarus.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been invited to join the crucial talks, more than 500 days after Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine began.

Last month, Mr Albanese pledged an extra $110 million in military and humanitarian support for Ukraine – but stopped short of committing retired F/A-18 fighter jets to the war effort.

“If that were a possibility, I think that there will be a lot of thanks, a lot of cheering coming from our side of the world to Australia,” Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

“I remember when we saw the first pictures of Bushmaster personnel carriers being offloaded in Poland, and being brought into Ukraine – really it felt heartwarming to know that a country so far away is actually committing itself, committing a weapon and financial resources to assist Ukraine for its fight for independence and sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“So any steps beyond that would be truly, truly appreciated I have not heard the conversations now but I mean, who knows, maybe that happens in Vilnius.”

In May, US President Joe Biden gave the green light for Ukrainian pilots to be trained on US made F-16 planes as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked world leaders for their ongoing support at the G7 summit in Hiroshima.

Final call on Ukraine’s membership of NATO to be discussed

Mr Landsbergis told the ABC the NATO summit in Vilnius came at a crucial moment in the war in Ukraine, with discussions on Kyiv’s membership of the alliance at the top of the agenda.

“What we need to achieve and what we’re trying to achieve is to bring Ukraine closer to NATO,” he said.

“And the decision has to be made as how do we treat Ukraine from after the summit.

“Our vision is that Ukraine has to have a very clear path when and how to guides that joins the alliance.”

Over the weekend, Mr Biden told CNN that Ukraine’s push to join NATO was premature.

Countries on NATO’s eastern flank, including Lithuania, have worried about their fate should the war in Ukraine spill over into other parts of Europe.

“We’re very close to where the war is happening, it’s very close geographically,” Mr Landsbergis said.

“And you know, especially with the latest events with mutiny in Russia, we’ve seen how fast the country can become really unstable with parts of its military, its private military, moving a few hundred kilometres away from Moscow.

“So now minds are imagining how fast would they get to our border as well.

“What we want to find in the declaration of the summit is more strengthening — how do we strengthen more the countries of the eastern flank, more troops on the ground, more air defence, more repositioning of equipment, so that our people, our countries can be safer.”

Ukraine invasion could foreshadow conflict in the Asia-Pacific

Mr Landsbergis said he shared concerns other countries, such as China, could see the invasion of Ukraine as something of a blueprint for their own expansionist goals — such as across the Strait of Taiwan.

He said that gave reason for NATO to invite leaders from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan to the summit in Vilnius.

“What we feel is that the history book is being written, for better or worse, in Ukraine – not just about the struggles of the Ukrainian people, but how the world reacts,” Mr Landsbergis said.

“Each oppressor hopes that its victim will be isolated – that’s the hope throughout the ages, throughout the hundreds of years of mankind’s history — isolated victims cannot fight, or tend to fight way weaker, and it’s way easier to oppress it and to occupy it.

“I think this is the main lesson that the aggressors of the future are taking away from the war in Ukraine — Ukraine was not alone, and this is the message that has to reign very far and very wide that in cases like these the countries, the victims will not be left alone.”

Lithuania’s support of Taiwan has caused tension in its relationship with China, with Beijing enforcing its brand of economic coercion on the European nation.

Crippling trade sanctions, with striking similarities to those imposed on Australian products, were used to punish Lithuania for pursuing ties with Taipei.

G7 leaders used their summit in May to pledge to “de-risk, not decouple” their economic engagement with China, concerned that any dependence on one country posed significant problems for global supply chains.

“We’ve been basically decoupled by China because of our economic relations with Taiwan – but we survived,” Mr Landsbergis said.

He argued the war in Ukraine had shown similar problems, highlighting the perils of Europe’s reliance on Russia.

“We did not need to decouple from Russia, but Russia decoupled itself from us, and therefore we had to deal with all the outcomes that came from it,” he said.

“I think that we need to keep in mind that the current world, and dependency on single countries – especially who have authoritarian tendencies, or tendencies to have adventures abroad in their neighbourhood — I think that we need to keep in mind that we need to be better prepared.”