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On 24 September in New York, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas took part in the meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers with the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The issue of Georgia topped the agenda of this meeting. During the discussion, Minister P.Vaitiekūnas indicated that the international community should make every effort to prevent recurrence in the EU neighbourhood of such events like the ones that happened in Georgia this August.

‘We have to further maintain a strict position on the pull-out of the Russian troops from the Georgian territory. The principle of Georgia’s territorial integrity is not an object of negotiations,’ stated head of Lithuanian diplomacy.

The Minister welcomed the unified position of the EU and U.S. on the conflict in Georgia.

According to P.Vaitiekūnas, the international community is resolved to provide all the possible political and economic support to restore and maintain stability in Georgia. The EU is decisively and timely moving in this direction: on 1 October the EU’s civilian observer mission to Georgia begins, on 15 October in Geneva the international conference on the conflict settlement starts and in the end of October the international donor conference will be held.

‘It is of particular importance that the EU is resolved to deepen the EU-Georgian relations by drafting an agreement on a facilitated visa regime and the Free Trade Agreement,’ said P.Vaitiekūnas highlighting another major strategic decision that the international community must make during the upcoming NATO Ministerial meeting in December. The decision would be regarding the extension of the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Georgia. 

The significance of a unified political and practical support of the transatlantic community to Georgia and the importance of the extension of NATO Membership Action Plan to Ukraine and Georgia was also stressed by Minister P.Vaitiekūnas on 24 September, during the NATO and EU Foreign Ministers’ discussion.

During the discussion, head of Lithuanian diplomacy highlighted the necessity of the NATO-EU cooperation and of a more active involvement of the U.S.A. into the European security issues.

Participants of the discussion also exchanged opinions on the issue of the future relations between the Euro-Atlantic community and Russia, as well as expressed views on the security situation in Europe after Russia’s aggression against Georgia.

On 24 September in New York, Minister P.Vaitiekūnas also took part in the informal Foreign Ministers’ meeting of the Council of Europe, during which possible steps of the Council of Europe in seeking to settle the Georgian-Russian conflict were discussed.

While speaking during the event, Minister P.Vaitiekūnas emphasized that member states of the Council of Europe must fulfil their obligations. He also stressed that the organisation had to give a strict response to those, who were not fulfilling their obligations to the organisation and its values. According to P.Vaitiekūnas, it is important to prevent any attempts to breach the norms of the Council of Europe in the future.

On 24 September Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs P.Vaitiekūnas and heads of Latvian and Estonian diplomacy – Maris Riekstins and Urmas Paet – met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, and discussed important issues of international security. Participants of the meeting welcomed the progress in seeking to apply the Visa Waver Program for the citizens of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia travelling to the U.S.A.