News

On 22 September Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas took part in the EU Foreign Ministers’ meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergej Lavrov, where regulation of the conflict in the Middle East, Iran issue, activities of the Peacebuilding Commission and Human Rights Council and other important issues of the world politics were discussed.

At the meeting Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov raised the Kaliningrad transit issue, and urged to sign an appropriate EU-Russia agreement to ensure that the current travel regime would be retained after Lithuania’s accession to the Schengen zone.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister stressed that Lithuania is satisfied with smooth implementation of the Kaliningrad transit program under the current rules of transit. The minister confirmed that Lithuania would do its best to make the existing travel regime comply with Schengen requirements. According to Minister Vaitiekūnas, at the same time Lithuania hopes that Russia will remain a reliable energy partner and supplier in the future.

Lithuanian and Russian Foreign Ministers discussed a possibility to organize a bilateral meeting in Vilnius or in Moscow, where important bilateral issues would be addressed.

The Head of Lithuanian Diplomacy also participated in the EU Foreign Ministers’ meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, where such issues as the crisis in the Middle East, Iran, situation in Darfur and Kosovo, energy problems, “frozen” regional conflicts, prospects of relations with Russia and evolvement of democracy were considered.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vaitiekūnas urged not to forget the EU neighbour states and invest in education of societies of these states and actively support concrete cooperation projects for different groups of citizens.