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On 15 May, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Audra Plepytė, attended the 135th session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Chişinău, Moldova, during which 36 states and the European Union adopted a Resolution establishing an Enlarged Partial Agreement on the Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

“We are delighted that Lithuania was the first country to complete the necessary national procedures to join. We must now work shoulder to shoulder to mobilise international support for it and step up our efforts to make this Tribunal operational as soon as possible. Ukraine is fighting for our common values. We must continue our efforts to seek accountability for war crimes and return all abducted Ukrainian children," the Vice-Minister Plepytė stressed.

During the session, the member states of the Council of Europe also adopted the Chişinău declaration on migration, which focuses on exploiting migration for political purposes, thus threatening European security, and took decisions on tackling disinformation and strengthening democratic resilience in Europe.

"We welcome the Council of Europe's  Declaration on Migration, which recognises the instrumentalisation of migration and other security threats to today's geopolitical environment. We also need to look at ways to respond more effectively to Russia’s ongoing hybrid warfare against our societies, including disinformation and  historical distortion. Thus, today’s decisions on countering information manipulation and foreign interference are particularly relevant,” the Vice-Minister said.

During her visit to Moldova, Plepytė met with Mattias Guyomar, President of the European Court of Human Rights, and expressed Lithuania's strong support for the Court and its independence. The Vice-Minister underlined the importance of the Court's role in ensuring the protection of human rights across Europe, as well as in addressing migration challenges, especially in the current geopolitical context. The Vice-Minister also met with representatives of the Governments of Moldova, Armenia, and Cyprus.

Since November 2025, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has been chaired by Moldova, with Monaco taking over on 15 May. The session of the Committee of Ministers is the most important annual meeting, which brings together Foreign Ministers of the member states of the Council of Europe to discuss the priorities of the organisation and the most pressing issues of European security and democracy.

Headquartered in Strasbourg, the Council of Europe is a regional intergovernmental organisation that aims to defend, develop and implement European standards on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Lithuania held the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe from May to November 2024.