News

On 24 and 25 August, the Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrius Krivas paid a visit to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and to Chaghcharan, the capital of Ghor province, as part of the delegation led by the Minister of National Defence of Lithuania Juozas Olekas.

Together with members of the Seimas (Parliament) of Lithuania – Eduardas Šablinskas, Valdas Vasiliauskas, Dangutė Mikutienė - Deborah Ann McCarthy, the U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania, the Ukrainian Deputy Chief of Defence, Lieutenant General Viktor Muzhenko and senior officials of the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence, the Foreign Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister, Audrius Brūzga, and Ambassador Kęstutis Jankauskas, Lithuania’s Permanent Representative to NATO, were also part of the delegation.

In Kabul, the Lithuanian delegation held meetings with the Afghan Minister of Defence Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, John G. Lorimer, the Deputy Commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, the U.S. Deputy Ambassador to Afghanistan Earle Litzenberger, and with one of Lithuanian’s most important development cooperation partners – the Japanese Ambassador to Kabul Hiroshi Takahashi.

At the meetings, the Lithuanian delegation expressed Lithuania’s willingness to contribute to training of the Afghan National Security Forces and stressed that the country would continue its development assistance projects also after the end of the PRT’s activities. Lithuania is determined to further implement priority projects together with its international partners. The remaining diplomats and experts from the Lithuanian Special Mission in Kabul will coordinate the implementation of the projects.