News

On 3 October in Geneva, the Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrius Krivas acquainted representatives of the European Union and its eastern neighbours with preparations for the Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in November in Vilnius, and presented Lithuania’s bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council to representatives of African countries.

The Lithuanian Foreign Vice-Minister acquainted Mara Marinaki, Managing Director of Global and Multilateral Affairs of the European External Action Service, with the main event of Lithuania’s Presidency of the EU Council to be held in Vilnius next month, also with awaited decisions of the Eastern Partnership Summit and their implementation prospects.

According to A.Krivas, cooperation with Partnership countries is based on goals of each individual country and their ambitions of integration into the EU. It is now believed that the EU will sign or initial Association Agreements and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements with eastern partners, make decisions on visa regime facilitation, and issue a joint declaration in Vilnius.

The meeting will also discuss possibilities for informal cooperation between representations of the EU and Eastern Partnership countries in Geneva on human rights, health care, disarmament, migration and transport.

During bilateral meetings with Ambassadors of Niger, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Comoros and Mauritius, the Foreign Vice-Minister presented Lithuania’s bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council in 2014-2015 and discussed support for the country during the elections.

Having presented Lithuania’s programme of activities in the Security Council, A.Krivas added that the largest Baltic state was actively promoting relations with the African countries that had achieved huge economic potentials, recently obtained observer status in the African Union, and were preparing to take part in the EU-Africa Summit in 2014.