News

On 31 August, Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis bestowed the Golden Cross of the MFA medal “For Merits to Lithuanian Diplomacy” upon Justina Jakavonytė, Third Secretary of the Eastern Neighbourhood Policy Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). She was the only diplomat who, together with a dozen of other services, helped to evacuate from Afghanistan the Afghans who worked as interpreters with the Lithuanian military in 2005 – 2013 and their family members as well as staff members of the European Union (EU) Delegation in Kabul and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and their family members.

“Justina Jakavonytė worked under particularly challenging security circumstances, literally risking her life to save almost two hundred people from Afghanistan which is becoming an area of violence and terror. I am grateful to her for her courage and service to Lithuanian diplomacy,” Gabrielius Landsbergis said.

Having worked at the Lithuanian Special Mission in Afghanistan before, Justina Jakavonytė and the other team members made every effort to save the Afghans, negotiated their arrival in Kabul airport, prepared their travel documents, and coordinated their boarding partner planes under extremely complicated conditions. As a result, 176 Afghans arrived in Lithuania.

The Foreign Minister also expressed his gratitude to Audrius Brūzga, Director of the MFA Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Department; Audrius Bendinskas, Director of the MFA Consular Department; Mantvydas Bekešius, Advisor to the MFA Global Lithuania Department; Eitvydas Bajarūnas, Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to the Russian Federation; and Vilma Dambrauskienė, Deputy Director of the MFA State and Diplomatic Protocol Department. The above diplomats were singled out for planning the mission, for establishing and maintaining ties with partners and settling logistic and legal as well as political and practical matters in relation to the evacuation mission.