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On 31 January, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis visited Helsinki, Finland, where he met with the Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto, the Speaker of the Finnish Parliament Anu Vehviläinen, and visited the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats.

During the meeting, the Foreign Ministers discussed the security situation in Europe, related to a build-up of Russian military forces Russian near the border with Ukraine, NATO and allies' contacts with Russia, as well as support for Ukraine.

The interlocutors noted that the worrying military integration between Russia and Belarus was fundamentally changing the security and defence needs of the Baltic region, while Russia’s aggressive policy and actions posed a threat to European security. Landsbergis and Haavisto also discussed China’s economic pressure on Lithuania and the European Union. Lansbergis highlighted that China’s illegal economic pressure was an attack not only on Lithuania, but also on the EU's single market as a whole, and, therefore, a common EU response was needed.

At a meeting with the Speaker of the Finnish Parliament Anu Vehviläinen, Landsbergis discussed the development of bilateral relations with Finland and of the Nordic-Baltic cooperation, priority items on the regional agenda, including ways to ensure security in the Baltic Sea region and to strengthen transatlantic relations, possible solutions to energy challenges, the current situation at the EU’s external borders and the Belarusian regime's hybrid aggression against Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

Together with the heads of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, Landsbergis discussed the centre’s contribution to the strengthening of the EU’s resilience to hybrid threats and noted that the item was high on the EU’s strategic agenda.

Lithuania and Finland are cooperating closely to counter hybrid threats — Finland participates in the Lithuanian-led initiative on a cyber response force and mutual assistance in cyber security, which is a project under the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), while Lithuania is among the founders of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki. Representatives of 19 EU countries, the United States of America, Norway and Canada work at the centre.