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During the presentation of the book “Sąjūdis-Solidarność: Beginning of the Strategic Partnership” on 31 May at the Seimas, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis shared his memories of Lithuania’s Reform Movement Sąjūdis establishing contacts with the Polish Solidarność Movement back in 1989 and the first visit to the Polish Sejm (Parliament).

“Back then, Sąjūdis and Solidarność lent a hand to teach other, probably understanding that in the long-term and in the short-term perspective one movement will not survive without the other,” Minister A.Ažubalis said at the event.

According to the Minister, twenty years after the restoration of independence Lithuania and Poland foster good relations and cooperate well within the European Union and NATO.

Head of the Twentieth-Century History Department of the Lithuanian Institute of History, historian Česlovas Laurinavičius, editor-in-chief of the Polish daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, former Solidarity activist Adam Michnik, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Lithuanian Seimas (Parliament) Emanuelis Zingeris attended the presentation of the book and took part in the discussion.

The book contains the material of the conference “Sąjūdis and Solidarność: Beginning of the Strategic Partnership” that was organised on 5 September 2008 at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. The material includes transcripts of the speeches that were given by the Lithuanian representatives and photos of the event.

The event at the Seimas was organized by the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Seimas and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The book “Sąjūdis-Solidarność: Beginning of the Strategic Partnership” was presented to the audience of the neighbouring country at the Lithuanian Embassy in Poland on 12 May.

The Lithuanian Institute of History prepared the publication in cooperation with the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The Publishing House DiG published the book in 2010 in Warsaw.