“Today, the Lithuania-U.S. strategic partnership manifests itself also in practice – we not only cooperate closely in many areas, but also actively work together in international organisations, we are equally aware of threats to the transatlantic community and jointly look for ways to address them,” said Lithuania’s Foreign Minister in the meetings at the United States Senate and the U.S. State Department.
Linkevičius said that in the context of Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine and the Kremlin’s efforts to divide the West, it was necessary to strengthen the transatlantic partnership.
“Ignoring the new security challenges and doing nothing about them would send a bad signal to those, who still lean towards using military force. Therefore, greater presence of the U.S. and NATO allies in Lithuania and the Baltic states is necessary in order to strengthen security and stability in the entire region. To this end, the leadership of the U.S., as an advocate of freedom and democratic values, is especially important,” said Linkevičius.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister noted that Lithuania surely performed its obligations regarding defence funding – increased financing, returned compulsory conscription, modernised military equipment. “We do this in a consistent and transparent manner, because, first of all, we do realise that we are responsible for our own security,” said Linkevičius.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister thanked the U.S. officials for their attention and initiatives to strengthen the resilience of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe to the Kremlin’s propaganda.
“Unfortunately, the Kremlin uses information as a weapon. We see this not only in Ukraine, Moldova, the South Caucasus countries, but also in the Baltic states, Germany and other EU member states. Information, which is contaminated by the propaganda, discredits the freedom of speech and has nothing to do with democracy. Therefore, we need to continue to make joint efforts to create alternatives to the Kremlin’s propaganda. The Radio Free Europe is working on creating a Russian-language TV channel, which is a very much needed and a welcome step,” said Linkevičius.
In the meetings in Washington, D.C., the officials also discussed the results of the United Kingdom’s referendum and their impact on Europe and the transatlantic community.
While in Washington, D.C., Lithuania’s Foreign Minister also visited the offices of The Washington Post and The Heritage Foundation, where he met with journalists working for Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Weekly Standard, Associated Press, Huffington Post, Euro News and Foreign Policy. The conversations were dominated by such topics as the next NATO’s Summit in Warsaw, Russian aggression, Ukraine and European security.
