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On 29 December, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas met with organizers and participants of the project “Mission: Siberia”. During meeting, which has already become traditional, participants of the project “Mission: Siberia” shared their impressions and discussed possible plans for the next year. Minister V.Ušackas, who himself took part in this project in 2007, welcomed the young people who had visited the places of deportation in Siberia and North Russia, and wished them new and meaningful accomplishments for the next year. According to the head of diplomacy, the experience that has already been accumulated and mutual relations should be maintained, because there are more and more young people, who have visited those places and contributed to the mission, and they can share their impressions with others as well.

During the meeting, enthusiasts of “Mission: Siberia” spoke about future expeditions, ways to secure the continuity of the project and to attract as many young people, as possible.

According to President of the Lithuanian Youth Council (LiJOT) Šarūnas Frolenko, there are cemeteries that need to be detected, marked and put in order not only in Siberia, but also in the steppes of Central Asia, where nobody has ever put them in order.

Minister V.Ušackas is among the authors of the idea of the project “Mission: Siberia”. This idea has been realised by the LiJOT since 2006. Since then, five expeditions have been organised to the regions of Irkutsk, Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk, the Komi Republic, Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk, during which young people cleaned Lithuanian cemeteries and met with members of the local Lithuanian communities.

In 2008, the expedition was sponsored also from the funds of the Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion programme of Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Please learn more about Lithuania’s Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion projects here