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Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius participated at the Foreign Affairs Council on 18 May in Brussels. Part of this Council agenda was discussed in conjunction with defense ministers.

At the meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, EU foreign and defense ministers discussed security threats in the EU neighborhood, paying special attention to the threats arising at southern and eastern borders of the EU. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister pointed out  the modernisation of Russia’s armed forces and intensive large-scale exercises, and said that “actions by Russia’s Baltic Fleet, not to mention the Russian Air Force, are obviously intended to test all of us” with the  recent incidents in the Baltic sea in mind.

At the joint session of the Defence and Foreign Affairs Ministers, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister drew attention to the fact that 22 EU member states were members of NATO, thus it was particularly important for the EU to identify common threats together with NATO, while ensuring their security and avoiding duplication of effort and cost. In addition, Lithuania suggested increasing support to Eastern Partnership countries - Georgia, Moldova, and, particularly, Ukraine - in the field of security and defence, also taking steps to ensure information security of individual EU countries and fighting against propaganda. The Foreign Minister called on his counterparts to clearly identify threats and challenges posed by Russia.

As regards the illicit migration challenge, the Foreign Minister said that Lithuania was active not only at the EU level, but also as the Presidency of the UN Security Council aiming to adopt a resolution to prevent a flow of illegal immigrants. According to Lithuania’s Foreign Minister, it is also very important to address this problem mostly at its origin and the EU has to find the right balance between the southern and eastern dimension of the EU’s Common Immigration Policy. The Council established an EU naval operation to disrupt the business model of human trafficking in the Mediterranean.

The Foreign Ministers discussed the Middle East peace process and the possibility of solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the help of the new Israeli Government.

“It is good to hear that the Ukrainian Foreign Minister has very clear commitment to begin the provisional application of the 2014 EU-Ukraine Association Agreement on 1 January 2016,” said Linkevičius in the meeting of the Group of Friends of Ukraine prior to the Council.

For more information on the Defence and Foreign Affairs Council, please read here: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/fac/2015/05/18/

Photos: The Council of the European Union