News

On 14 February in Vilnius, a meeting of Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Vygaudas Ušackas, his Belarusian counterpart Sergei Martynov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ogryzko took place. Lithuanian head of diplomacy noted that the tripartite meeting was convened with the aim of emphasizing the common past and common challenges for the future of the three states.

“We agreed to cooperate in order to preserve and present to our societies our common historic heritage, as well as to strengthen our common European identity. I believe that a better understanding of our common past would contribute to a better solution of our common challenges for the future, among those are  guarantees for energy supply security and implementation of transport projects”, Minister V.Ušackas said.

During the ministerial meeting in Vilnius, the first meeting of a tripartite working group of experts also took place with the aim to analyze possibilities of electricity export from Ukraine to Lithuania via Belarus after 2010. The Ministers tasked the experts to draft an action plan for the implementation of this project.

Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian heads of diplomacy also discussed the progress regarding a joint transport project of the container train „Viking“ between Klaipėda and Ilyichevsk. Minister V.Ušackas conveyed a request of Lithuania‘s transport minister to organize in the nearest future a tripartite meeting of transport ministers who would look for ways to increase cargo flows.

A project of a highway which would connect the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea was also discussed in Vilnius.

The Ministers exchanged their views concerning the initiative of European Union‘s Eastern Partnership. Minister V.Ušackas expressed trust that this initiative would become an excellent new format for bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the Eastern Neighbourhood and would contribute to the promotion of stability, good governance and economic development as well as would give a new impetus to the consolidation of common European values – democracy, human rights and rule of law – in the region.

After the meeting the Ministers of the three countries paid a visit to the tenth Vilnius Book Fair, which was dedicated to the Millennium of Lithuania‘s name and the celebration of Vilnius as the European Capital of Culture 2009.