News

As part of the delegation led by the President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius will travel to New York on 21 September to attend the general debate of the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly. The main topic this year is the realization of the Millennium Development Goals and post-2015 Development Agenda.

The agenda of the Foreign Minister’s visit to New York will be particularly intense. In addition to the general debate and forums on a wide range of topics, the Minister will have dozens of bilateral and multilateral meetings with representatives from various countries. He will also meet with members of the Lithuanian community.

The main focus of the general debate is the special event to follow up efforts made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals on 25 September. It is expected that the event will encourage the international community to aim more actively at achieving the Millennium Development Goals which were agreed on in 2000. L.Linkevičius will present Lithuania’s position as regards accelerating progress in this area both in the short run term and post-2015.

The Foreign Minister will also attend the U.S. President Barack Obama’s event to discuss support for civil society, a meeting of the EU’s 28 Foreign Ministers, the EU’s 28 FMs-U.S. political dialogue, ministerial meetings of the EU and Eastern Partnership countries, and the traditional transatlantic dinner.

It is expected that L.Linkevičius will on behalf of the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Cathrine Ashton give speeches at high-level meetings on the Arms Trade Treaty, nuclear disarmament and the conference of Member States of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

The visit to New York includes the Minister’s bilateral meetings with Foreign Ministers from forty different countries. Diplomatic relations will be established with some countries. The meetings will discuss important international issues, such as sustainable development, poverty reduction, the situation in the Near East, especially in Syria, women’s empowerment, as well as prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls.

During the bilateral meetings, Lithuania will also present its priorities campaigning for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2014-2015. Lithuania announced its candidacy for the non-permanent membership in 1996. The country is the only candidate from the Eastern European Group of States at the election that will be held in October.