News

On 23 January in Vilnius, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius met with members of the Defence Commission of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag)  and discussed Lithuania’s experience of holding the EU Presidency, the expansion of the EU Eastern Partnership programme and developments in Ukraine.

The meeting discussed security issues of the Baltic Sea region, shared opinions about NATO’s role in the region, reviewed new security threats, and assessed bilateral cooperation with Sweden as well as multilateral cooperation between the countries of the region in the field of security and defence.

L.Linkevičius highlighted Sweden’s significant contribution to the security of the region and assured that Lithuania fully supported closer cooperation between NATO and its partner country Sweden, hailed smooth cooperation in international operations and called for new initiatives to strengthen bilateral and regional military cooperation.

The discussion on the events in Ukraine was dominated by belief that the EU had to take a more active role helping to solve the crisis and providing assistance to the people of Ukraine, who were defending European values.

All the parties in the Riksdag are represented in the Defence Commission tasked with drafting Sweden’s security strategy for the period 2015-2018. In May 2013, the Defence Commission presented its first report on Sweden’s security situation. The Defence Commission will present proposals for the period after 2015.