News

On 14 January in Vilnius, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas met with Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece Dimitris Droutsas and discussed bilateral cooperation in reconstructing Afghanistan’s Ghor province and preparing for the EU Presidency.

During the meeting, Minister V.Ušackas expressed sincere gratitude to the Government of Greece for 0.5 million euros financial support to the development of health service in the Ghor province.

According to Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, the support will be used effectively. A function room and an emergency department will be built at the hospital in Chaghcharan, the capital of the province.

Minister V.Ušackas invited the representatives of Greece to take part in the development conference that Lithuania organizes this year in cooperation with the administration of the Ghor province.  

The Ministers are convinced that mutual relations between Lithuania and Greece will grow stronger in the future, especially as time is approaching for these countries and Ireland to hold the EU Presidency.

“It will be a coalition of “rain, snow and the sun”. We agreed to closely cooperate and draft a joint programme of the three states, as is set out in the Treaty of Lisbon,” Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs said after the meeting.

The Treaty of Lisbon, which is now in effect, foresees that the Presidency of the European Union is undertaken by the presidency trios according to the schedule, which is set in advance, and that they jointly prepare an 18 months programme for the activities of the Council. Lithuania will coordinate its Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half-year of 2013 with Ireland, which will hold the Presidency before Lithuania, and with the EU Presidency for the first half-year of 2014 Greece.

“We have to start preparing for the EU Presidency well in advance. Therefore, we have preliminary discussed the areas of the Presidencies that are currently most important for us: a common EU’s energy market, the continuity of the Baltic Sea Strategy and maintaining the dynamics of the EU enlargement. We are also interested to maintain a strict border protection, as well as cooperation regarding justice and home affairs,” Minister V.Ušackas said.

The Ministers agreed to actively cooperate in the area of Lithuania’s preparation for the OSCE Chairmanship. Greece held the chairmanship of this organization in 2009. Therefore, its experience and pieces of advice are very important for Lithuania, as it will take over the Chairmanship next year.

The Ministers discussed a possibility to develop the cooperation of regional organizations: the Council of the Baltic Sea States and the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative. Lithuania and Greece are members of these organisations.

Ministers V.Ušackas, D.Droutsas and other five European foreign ministers participate in an informal “Snow Meeting” of European and North American experts on international and security policy that is held in Trakai on 14-15 January. The participants of the meeting discuss the issues of relations between East and West, key strategic challenges that the Euro-Atlantic community will have to face in 2010.