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An informal Snow Meeting brought together Lithuanian and foreign security policy experts on 11-12 January in Trakai district. The meeting discussed the main challenges facing the transatlantic community and ways to respond to them.

The meeting was attended by the Foreign Ministers of Latvia, Estonia and the Vatican – Edgars Rinkēvičs, Sven Mikser, and Paul Richard Gallagher. The Swedish and Estonian Ministers of Defence – Peter Hultqvist and Jüri Luik – also attended the meeting, as well as about 100 high-ranking diplomats, advisers, parliamentarians, and international and security policy experts of analytical and research centres from about 15 countries, NATO and EU institutions.

“The meeting brings together enthusiasts and supporters of transatlantic relations. We rally them for the sake of stronger ties between Europe and NATO, and we seek that  the decision-making process, especially the one related to Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, such as the deployment of the Spearhead Force, would be continued,” said Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius during a press conference after the meeting.

The Snow Meeting discussed how to further strengthen the transatlantic link and to address security challenges facing the Euro-Atlantic community. The participants of the event discussed preparations for the next NATO Summit on 11-12 July 2018 in Brussels and possible solutions for the strengthening of allied security in the face of conventional and hybrid threats. A separate session was devoted to discuss initiatives of the EU’s closer defence cooperation.

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