News

On May 21 in London, the Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Antanas Valionis met with Great Britain‘s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Jack Straw, the Director-General of Farming, Food and Fishing at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Andy Lebrecht, the Treasury's Director for Macroeconomic Policy and International Finance Gus O’Donnell. During the meeting with Foreign Secretary Straw, the subjects of discussion were the bilateral relations of Lithuania and Great Britain, NATO and EU enlargement processes and relations with neighbours. On discussing the NATO enlargement the head of British diplomacy noted that “Lithuania‘s chances for being invited are great”. Great Britain does not yet specify the concrete countries to be invited during the forthcoming Prague summit this year. Discussing the Reykjavik initiative of May 14-16 on the establishment of a new forum for NATO-Russia cooperation, it has been noted that the parties will work upon specific projects within the context of NATO – Russia and Lithuania – Russia bilateral cooperation. “We consult the leaders of one of the most powerful states and we find a lot of points in common”, stated the minister Antanas Valionis. The head of Lithuanian diplomacy Valionis and Great Britain‘s Secretary of State for Foreign and British Commonwealth Affairs Jack Straw signed an agreement on avoiding double taxation of income and income from capital increase as well as prevention of tax evasion. On discussing the bilateral relations of Lithuania and Great Britain, the parties noted a positive increase in trade volumes. During the meeting with the representatives of the Ministry of Finance, minister Valionis discussed the subject of closing down the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. The British delegation expressed their approval of the proposal to state the political will on providing support for the Ignalina Power Plant decommissioning after 2006 in a joint declaration of Lithuania and the European Union as an appendix to Lithuania‘s accession agreement. The British representatives emphasized that the direct costs of the Ignalina Power Plant decommissioning may be not included into the 4 per cent of GDP which are to be pledged within the regional policy framework. During his meeting with the Director-General of Farming, Food and Fishing at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Andy Lebrecht, Minister Valionis spoke about the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The British representatives noted that they were in favour of as short transitional period as possible concerning direct payments to the farmers from the new member states. They support the idea that the CAP should be reformed and direct payments to the old member state farmers should be lowered, thus gradually evening out conditions for old and new member states. During his visit at the Royal United Services Institute of Defence, minister Valionis met with Great Britain‘s experts who urged Lithuania to think about its military specialisation within the NATO structures.