News

 On 4 September at the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Warsaw, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas awarded former President of the Republic of Poland, founder of the Solidarność (Reform Movement of Poland) and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Lech Wałęsa with the prestigious award of Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – the Lithuanian Millennium Star - for the merits to the Lithuanian state and to its foreign policy.   ‘I am greatly honoured to confer the Lithuanian Millennium Star to former President L.Wałęsa. Thanks to him Lithuanian and Poland became strategic partners. We should inscribe the name of President L.Wałęsa among the names and titles that are important and prominent in the history of our two nations: Vytautas the Great, Jogaila, Adomas Mickevičius, Tadas Kosciuška, Solidarność and Sąjūdis (Reform Movement of Lithuania),’ said Minister P.Vaitiekūnas.

During the term in office of President L.Wałęsa from 1990 to 1995, mutual distrust was overcome and firm basis was laid for the development of bilateral relations between Lithuania and Poland.

On 26 April 1994, a Treaty between the Republic of Lithuania and the Republic of Poland on friendly relations and good neighbourly cooperation was signed. The document served as a breakthrough in bilateral relations and allowed for the strategic partnership between Lithuania and Poland.

Lithuanian and Polish politicians, diplomats, historians, public figures, representatives of media took part in the ceremony.

On 5 September, the conference ‘Sąjūdis and Solidarność: Beginning of the Strategic Partnership’ is organised at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. The patrons of the event are Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas and Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski. The conference is organised by the Lithuanian Institute of History, the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the Republic of Poland and the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

The award of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – the Lithuanian Millennium Star – was introduced to mark the millennium of the name of Lithuania. It is conferred to persons for their merits of faming the name of Lithuania.