News

On 19 February in Vilnius, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Andrius Krivas and the Polish Undersecretary of State Marek Ziółkowski discussed cooperation objectives in preparation for the next NATO summit in Warsaw.

“Poland is Lithuania’s one of the most important allies that makes a great effort to resolve regional security challenges. Lithuania hopes the NATO summit in Warsaw will bring ambitious solutions and is ready to actively support Poland in preparation for this important event,” stressed Krivas.

The Vice-Minister and the Undersecretary agreed to seek not only to have the implementation of the NATO Readiness Action Plan approved by the leaders of the Alliance’s member countries in July 2016 in the Polish capital, but also further adaptation of the Alliance to the threats from the east and the threats from the south agreed upon.

According to Krivas, it is important for Lithuania to have further decisions adopted in Warsaw to bolster NATO’s deterrence and collective defence, including an increased military presence in the eastern part of NATO.

The officials also discussed prospects for a dialogue between NATO and Russia. Krivas and Ziółkowski agreed that all the initiatives to reduce risk and promote transparency must not in any way adversely affect the strengthening of the security of NATO’s Eastern European members or be carried out at the expense of interests of its eastern partners.

In the meeting, the officials underlined the need in Warsaw to take another step towards the implementation of the Alliance’s open door policy in the partner countries seeking NATO membership. The participants of the consultations welcomed Montenegro’s prospects of NATO membership.