Lithuania seeks to remain the leader of the region and help to destroy the stockpiled landmines, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Dalius Čekuolis stated during the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World, which took place in the capital of Kenya on 28 November – 3 December.
The Summit aimed to review the implementation of the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on Their Destruction, which was signed in 1997 and came into force in 1999.
D. Čekuolis in his speech summarized Lithuanian antipersonnel mines prohibition policy and regional goals, underlined that in 2004 for the first time Lithuania became the donor of the international actions against the antipersonnel mines.
In June 2004, Lithuanian military engineers destroyed all 4000 landmines it possessed. Lithuania hosted in Vilnius a regional conference on advancing the Ottawa Convention on the prohibition of antipersonnel landmines in Northern and Eastern Europe. The same month Lithuania became the second country in the world to ratify the new Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War.
In October Lithuania became the landmine elimination donor donating 30 thousand litas for antipersonnel landmines destruction project in Byelorussia and was admitted to the group of 27 donors in New York, which coordinates the landmine projects all over the world.
The participants of Nairobi Summit adopted ambitious action plan and political declaration aiming at mobilization of the efforts of the states all over the world to diminish the number of the victims of landmines, to clear minefields, and to eliminate the stockpiled mines.
Foreign Ministry Undersecretary signed the Nairobi political declaration on behalf of Lithuania on 3 December.
Lithuania was the first country in the region to ratify the Ottawa convention on 25 March 2003. In Lithuania, the document took effect on 1 November 2003.