News

On 8 September in Washington, Lithuania’ Ambassador to NATO Gintė Damušytė signed two agreements of the Alliance: the 1951 Agreement on the Status of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, National Representatives and International Staff and the 1964 Agreement for Cooperation Regarding Atomic Information. The first agreement also called the Ottawa Agreement regulates immunities and privileges necessary to ensure implementation of the Organisation’s goals and performance of functions by national representatives and international staff. The second agreement regulates exchange and protection of atomic information. These are the last two of the nine NATO agreements, which Lithuania was to enter into after accession to the Alliance. The signed agreements will be handed to the Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament) for ratification. On 10 March this year, the Lithuanian Seimas ratified the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949 also known as the Washington treaty, later – the NATO Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), the Protocol on Status of International Military Headquarters and NATO agreements on security of information, protection of the defence related inventions and transfer of technical information. The Agreement on the Status of Missions and Representatives of Third States signed by Gintė Damušytė on 27 May in Brussels will be handed for ratification to the Seimas in the nearest future. During her visit in the US, the Ambassador also visited the US Department of State, where she met Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Robert Bradtke. At the meeting, the officials discussed various issues of NATO policy, including the functions of contact embassy in Belarus, which were assumed this month by the Lithuanian embassy in Minsk. Gintė Damušytė also attended the days of studies of the Ateitininkai Organisation, where she delivered a speech “Policy of Values in Modern World: Dividing or Consolidating Force”.