News

From May 31 to June 1, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius was visiting Kyiv, where he and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Leonid Kozhara co-chaired the 3rd Meeting of the Council of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Lithuania. The Council meeting discussed topical bilateral issues, the EU-Ukraine agenda, cooperation within international organizations and consular issues. Edminas Bagdonas, Director of Eastern Neighbourhood Policy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, presented one of the most important priorities for the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union - the Eastern Partnership initiative, the main objectives and events.

Oskaras Jusys, Director of United Nations, International Organizations and Human Rights Department, welcomed the active and constructive relations between the two countries within the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and expressed support for priorities of Ukraine’s OSCE Chairmanship.

In Kyiv, the Foreign Minister met with representatives of the Ukrainian authorities responsible for integration into the European Union - the First Vice Prime Minister Sergiy Arbuzov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) Andriy Klyuev, and with the Ukrainian opposition leaders Vitali Klitschko, Oleh Tiahnybok and Hryhoriy Nemyria.

L. Linkevičius stressed that it was necessary to take advantage of the remaining time before the Vilnius Summit and to achieve concrete progress in the agreed fields. The Foreign Minister pointed out that the EU was closely watching Ukraine’s steps to expand cooperation with the Customs Union, and noted that it was important that these steps would be consistent with Ukraine’s obligations to the EU.

Although the EU completed the negotiations with Ukraine on the Association Agreement in the end of 2011, the European Union hopes that Ukraine would make more progress in implementing reforms in various areas, so that the agreement could be signed at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius.

During the visit to Kyiv, the head of the Lithuanian diplomacy opened the first Lithuanian Visa Centre in Ukraine to ease the procedures of obtaining Schengen visas for Ukrainian citizens.