News

On 30 December, Ambassador of Greece to Lithuania Konstantinos Katsabis met with Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Vygaudas Ušackas and informed his counterpart about the Greek government's decision to provide Afghanistan’s Ghor Province with 0.5 million Euro allocated on health service development. Lithuania leads a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Ghor Province.

The Ambassador stressed that Greece is ready to become a reliable partner of Lithuania in implementing a major health project in Ghor Province: a reconstruction of the provincial central hospital.

The Minister expressed his gratitude to the Ambassador for the Greek Government's decision to provide this support to the Afghan people.

“I hope that our new collaboration helping to reconstruct the Ghor Province will continue in the future and will take new forms”, Minister V.Ušackas said during the meeting.

Since 2005, Lithuania has led the Provincial Reconstruction Team in the Ghor Province. The team is comprised of military and civilian personnel not only from Lithuania, but also from Croatia, Denmark, Georgia, Japan, Romania, Ukraine, and the U.S.A.

In Ghor Province, Lithuania is implementing development cooperation projects, and actively seeks to attract human and financial resources from the allies and partners. Therefore, in spring 2010, Lithuania is planning to hold an international conference on Ghor development in Afghanistan, during which it is expected to attract even more funds for reconstruction of the Province.

“We hope that our circle of partners and friends in Ghor Province will continue to grow in the future”, the Minister said.

Every year, the traditional Lithuania’s partner U.S.A., provide Ghor Province with an important financial aid and some civilian experts. In 2009, in cooperation with the Lithuanian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team, the United States have allocated about 6 million dollars. Lithuania is also in a close collaboration with Japan. Only this year, Japan has allocated 2 million dollars on education, health and social security projects in the Province. This support should be increased in 2010. Denmark and Croatia annually provide financial aid for carrying out small, so-called quick impact projects. In 2009, practical co-operation with the Netherlands preparing Lithuanian civilian experts for the mission in Afghanistan was launched.