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On 21 June in Vilnius, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius met with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain Alfonso María Dastis Quecedo, who arrived in Lithuania for a working visit. The Foreign Ministers discussed the most relevant issues of bilateral cooperation, regional security, cooperation within the European Union and NATO, the Eastern Neighbourhood, and energy security.

In the meeting, the Foreign Ministers positively assessed the developments in bilateral relations between Lithuania and Spain, and highlighted efforts to strengthen bilateral economic relations in the fields of biotechnology, life sciences, high technology, energy cooperation (there are seven LNG terminals in Spain). They also welcomed the growth of tourism, youth and academic exchanges. Spain is the most popular country for Lithuanian students, who study abroad under the Erasmus programme.

“Lithuania and Spain are united and stand in solidarity as members of the European Union and NATO. Fully aware of security threats from the east and south, Lithuania and Spain cooperate and support each other in other areas of security and defence. Spanish fighters have already guarded the airspace over the Baltic states from the air base near Šiauliai twice. Spanish instructors train specialists from the Lithuanian Air Force in Spain every year. The Spanish troops also contribute to the NATO enhanced forward presence battalion in Latvia, while Lithuanian soldiers participate in NATO exercises in Spain. Next year, the Lithuanian troops plan to contribute to a special operations component in the framework of the NATO Response Force in Spain,” said Lithuania’s Foreign Minister.

When speaking about the EU, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister emphasized that the positions of Lithuania and Spain on many items on the EU agenda coincided, including on Britain’s process of withdrawing from the EU, security and defence, border security, migration crisis, and on other issues. The Foreign Ministers underlined that the EU would be able to face internal and global challenges if its member states joined forces and stood in solidarity.

As regards the Eastern Neighbourhood, Linkevičius stressed the need to maintain the EU’s focus on and the Euro-Atlantic unity with regard to keeping sanctions on Russia until the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, and to support the ongoing reforms in Ukraine.

The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation also met with the Prime Minister of Lithuania Saulius Skvernelis.

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