LITHUANIAN FOREIGN VICE-MINISTER: RELATIONS BETWEEN THE BALTIC AND BENELUX COUNTRIES ARE VALUABLE FOR CONDUCTING MORE EFFECTIVE DIPLOMACY
On 10 December at the annual meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Baltic and Benelux countries in Brussels, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Vytautas Leškevičius stressed that the cooperation between the two regions of Europe was beneficial for conducting more effective diplomacy.
“We are happy in being able to give our opinion on the situation in the neighbouring countries - Belarus and Russia - as well as in such Eastern Partnership countries as Ukraine and Moldova, and that our insights are appreciated,” Leškevičius noted after the meeting.
The Vice-Minister said that the five-year format of cooperation between the Baltic and Benelux countries helped to find innovative solutions and allowed to achieve better results with scarcer resources. The meeting discussed the possibility of closer cooperation in the field of consular services and the maintenance of embassies.
Leškevičius thanked the Benelux countries for their support to Lithuanian and Latvian aspirations for membership in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The Ministers also discussed other relevant issues of the European Union and international policy, including the Review of the European External Action Service in 2013.
In Brussels, the Ministers of Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and the Netherlands held a meeting on the initiative of Belgium, as this county currently chairs the Benelux countries.
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