News

On 16-17 August in Turku, Finland, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas took part in the annual meeting of the foreign ministers from the Nordic and Baltic countries (NB8) and discussed possibilities of further regional cooperation, as well as important issues of international policy.

The heads of diplomacy of the Baltic and Nordic countries agreed that it was necessary to develop even broader links between the Baltic and Nordic countries and promote co-operation between other institutions, as well as seek to make the differences between the countries in the areas of economy, technologies, education, and others disappear in the future. 

The ministers welcomed the recent especially close cooperation between the heads of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Baltic and Nordic countries.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs also decided to prompt the European Union to prepare the Baltic Sea Region Strategy, which would aim to make the  differences between the Baltic and Nordic countries disappear and create a brand for the Baltic region as one of the most attractive and competitive regions in the world.

Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs P.Vaitiekūnas highlighted the significance of this strategy indicating that the Baltic and Nordic countries should take a more active role together in the area of foreign policy and strive to implement the EU Eastern Neighbourhood policy. According to the Minister, it is necessary to solve the issues of visa regime and energy more actively and share experience with the Eastern neighbours, without forgetting to cooperate also with the Central Asia.

Minister P.Vaitiekūnas also called attention to the situation in Kaliningrad, especially the business environment, which is a matter of concern.

The participants of the meeting were presented the conclusions drawn by the independent experts from the USA, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden regarding the incident in Georgia. During the meeting deep concern was expressed regarding the existing situation. The ministers agreed to take joint actions and raise the question during the informal meeting of the foreign ministers of the EU (Gymnich) on 7 September.

After the meetings minister P.Vaitiekūnas had a telephone conversation with Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gela Bezhuashvili. The ministers discussed current situation and agreed to continue raising the question regarding the incident in the international organisations, such as NATO, the European Union and the United Nations.