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On 30 June in Warsaw during the XVI session of the Lithuanian-Polish Parliamentary Assembly, which marked the 10th anniversary of the Assembly’s activities, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas indicated that during those ten years a strong foundation was laid for Lithuanian-Polish strategic partnership.

 “Our nations and states succeeded to free themselves from inert stereotypes of history conception and were able to understand one another, as well as we managed to discover common values of the past, present and future. I take pride in that and I am much obliged to all Lithuanians and Poles who worked consistently, agreement after agreement, and acted together in a confident manner towards cooperation and strategic proximity of our nations,” said the Head of Lithuanian diplomacy.

Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs also expressed contentment with  the newest achievements of both countries: the consolidation of energy security provisions on 21-22 June at the European Union Summit in Brussels the new bases for the EU future, i.e., the new Reform agreement, and the Lithuanian-Polish initiative (with the approval of the EU leaders) to strengthen the Eastern neighbourhood policy.

Minister P.Vaitiekūnas indicated that Lithuanian-Polish partnership and cooperation encompasses a lot of very concrete projects, starting with joint book publishing, youth exchange and ending with such gigantic projects of infrastructure and energy, as Lithuanian-Polish electricity bridge, the new nuclear power plant in Ignalina, interconnection of Lithuanian-Polish gas-pipelines, highway Via Baltica and the main line Rail Baltica.

This partnership, according to the Head of Lithuanian diplomacy, also manifests as a common objective to help those European countries and, first of all, the Eastern neighbours, which seek for closer political proximity with the European Union and NATO.

As an important achievement the Minister mentioned the intensifying mutual trade between the countries. The greatest Polish foreign investment is into Lithuanian oil company Mažeikių nafta and the greatest Lithuanian foreign investment is into a Polish pharmaceutical company Jelfa, which gives testimony of excellent cooperation perspectives.

“These investments are a sign of mutual confidence and attractiveness, encouraging both businessmen and politicians.  Today our young generation is also keen to take part in the exchange of information, ideas and people. We have to encourage and help to get to know each other more, create common culture, science, educational and art projects. This will bring our young people closer, will provide new background for mutual understanding and trust,” said Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs.