News

On 19 February in Vatican, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis met with the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Dominique Mamberti.

During the meeting, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs A.Ažubalis conveyed an invitation of President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė for Pope Benedict XVI to visit Lithuania.

Minister A.Ažubalis and D.Mamberti spoke about the necessity of an appropriate European evaluation of crimes committed by the totalitarian regimes and relations between the EU institutions and religious communities. The Minister acquainted the Archbishop with the dialogue that Lithuania initiated on the importance of moral values when creating the new NATO’s Strategic Concept.

D.Mamberti thanked Lithuania for the support in the international case concerning the prohibition of the use of crucifixes in classrooms in Italy. Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already informed Italy that the Government of Lithuania is intending to intervene into the proceedings of the European Court of Human Rights as a third party, should the case Lautsi v. Italy be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court.

In Rome, Foreign Minister A.Ažubalis met with Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and discussed bilateral relations.

The Ministers positively assessed the dynamics of bilateral economic and political relations and exchanged opinions on the issue of the premises of Lithuania’s diplomatic mission in Italy that is still unresolved.

Minister A.Ažubalis suggested a few new ideas to F.Frattini on possible ways to solve the issue. Italy’s Foreign Minister assured that the Italian authorities had a political will to solve this problem and promised to analyse the proposals and to give an answer during the next meeting.

On 20 February, Minister A.Ažubalis is attending a regular foreign ministers’ meeting of the European centre-right - the European People’s Party. At the meeting, foreign ministers of EU member states are discussing the issues on the agendas of the European Union’s General Affairs Council and the Foreign Affairs Council scheduled for 22 February in Brussels: the creation of the European External Action Service and the EU’s relations with Russia.

EU foreign ministers and foreign ministers from the Eastern Partnership countries, the Balkans and Turkey are discussing the situation in Ukraine and Moldova, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the EU and NATO integration processes in the Eastern Europe.

Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs is paying a visit to Rome and Vatican on 19-21 February. From Rome, Foreign Minister will depart to Brussels, where he will attend an informal meeting of the EU Trade Ministers on 21 February and the EU’s General Affairs Council and the Foreign Affairs Council on 22 February.  In Brussels, the Minister will also meet with President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and member of the European Commission, Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle.