News

On 3 March in Vilnius, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antanas Valionis met with First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Eleonora Mitrofanova, currently coordinating cultural cooperation, UNESCO and ties with the Russian communities abroad. On the same day, consultations between Undersecretary of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Evaldas Ignatavičius and Eleonora Mitrofanova took place. During the meetings, the issues of bilateral Lithuanian-Russian cooperation, culture and education of the Lithuanian national communities in Russia and the Russian communities in Lithuania as well as the main aspects of bilateral cultural relations and cooperation in the sphere of education were discussed. Minister Valionis raised the issue of exploiting the D-6 oil deposit, situated in the Baltic Sea near the Curonian Spit. The Minister underlined that oil drilling at the deposit started on 2 March in spite of Russia’s promise, communicated during the visit of the Lithuanian Prime Minister in Moscow on 20-22 October last year, to submit an emergency plan before the start of drilling and to begin negotiations on emergency prevention, liquidation and recovery of damages. The Minister also pointed out that oil drilling was started irrespective of recommendations by UNESCO World Heritage Committee not to start oil drilling earlier than a common evaluation of the deposit’s exploitation risks and effects on nature would be carried out.