News

On 27 September in New York, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius attended the Article XIV session of the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty on the sidelines of the 68th session of the UN General Assembly. Speaking on behalf of the European Union, the Foreign Minister called on all the non-member states to sign and ratify this important Treaty.

L.Linkevičius stressed that currently it was of the utmost importance to enhance and expand the network of the International Monitoring System and its capabilities that enable nuclear event identification and radionuclide detection. Namely this system enabled to detect that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea carried out a nuclear test in February 2013.

The General Assembly adopted the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty in 1996. It has now been signed by 177 states and ratified by 138. This Treaty has not yet entered into force, however, signatory states and the countries that have ratified the Treaty hold biannual Article XIV Conferences to examine issues related to nuclear tests. Lithuania signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty in 1996. The Seimas (Parliament) ratified it in 1999.

L.Linkevičius also held bilateral meetings with Foreign Ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Mozambique, and Myanmar. The Foreign Ministers discussed intensifying business relations, strengthening bilateral ties, opportunities to take advantage of study programs and cooperation within international organizations.

In New York, the head of the Lithuanian diplomacy and East Timor’s Foreign Minister José Luís Guterres signed a communique on the establishment of diplomatic relations between Lithuania and East Timor. East Timor is already the 170th country with which Lithuania has established diplomatic relations.