News

On 8 December in the Parliament Seimas, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis met with President-Elect Rolandas Paksas and presented the topical issues of foreign affairs. “Thanks to maturity of Lithuanian political forces and consensus among the major parliamentary parties, the consistent implementation and continuation of the main priorities of foreign policy – membership in the European Union and NATO, good neighbourly relations and active economic diplomacy – have been assured,” the chief of Lithuanian diplomacy noted at the meeting. According to Minister Valionis, “good neighbourly relations have become an undisputable fact, and other two priorities of the Lithuanian foreign policy have reached the final stage of their implementation: at the end of 2002, Lithuania was invited to accede to the North Atlantic Alliance and the European Union”. “Lithuania’s invitation to NATO and the EU is a sign of historic, all-embracing changes in the life of the Lithuanian state and its citizens – the definitive validation of Lithuania’s European vocation, a qualitatively new level of security, new possibilities for economic growth and promotion of the citizens’ welfare. The task of the Lithuanian diplomacy is to make full use of these possibilities”, the foreign minister said. According to the chief of diplomacy, the first statements by the president-elect of the Republic of Lithuania, just as Rolandas Paksas’ previous activities in the post of the Head of the Government, prove that the above-mentioned priorities undoubtedly remain the main guidelines for the country’s progress in the field of foreign policy.