News

During an informal meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of NATO members in Oslo on 26-27 April Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas in his speech on the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Mission in Afghanistan urged that more attention should be paid to such provinces like the province of Ghor. Such provinces are considered as quite secure, but need investment for reconstruction and development.

“It is worthwhile investing more into peace and stability in such provinces like that of Ghor, than fighting  insurgency and instability later,” Minister P.Vaitiekūnas said.

The Head of Lithuanian diplomacy stressed the significance of joint activities of international organizations in planning and carrying out operations. According to Minister P.Vaitiekūnas, the main thing is to advocate a comprehensive approach towards operation planning within all the other international organizations cooperating with the Alliance.

During the Meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Oslo, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs P.Vaitiekūnas noted that supporting the dialogue between the strategic partners (Alliance and Russia) it was not appropriate to employ the Cold War rhetoric.

“As members of the NATO-Russia Council we share the same vision of the future, and that  is the vision of security and stability,” said Minister P.Vaitiekūnas.

According to Minister P.Vaitiekūnas, it was important that Russia as a strategic partner of NATO should not interpret the enlargement of the Alliance as a hostile act, but should regard it as a mutual success. Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs suggested that the NATO-Russia Council pursued more discussionsof the greatest importance to the countries of the Alliance and Russia, such as the security of energy supply .

During a working dinner on 26 April, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs from the NATO and the EU countries discussed the most significant international security issues.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs from of NATO members and the Ukraine also met in Oslo. Despite the current political situation in the Ukraine, it continues to cooperate with the Alliance. The Ukraine keeps on implementing the necessary security reforms, takes part in the NATO operations.

Minister P.Vaitiekūnas thanked the Ukraine for the contribution sending an expert to join the Lithuanian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan.

After the Meeting of the NATO-Ukrainian commission, a bilateral meeting of Lithuanian and Ukrainian Ministers of Foreign Affairs will be held. During the meeting the future bilateral cooperation is to be discussed.