Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis thanked the Ambassadors for their greetings on his appointment as Prime Minister of Lithuania and briefly overviewed the foreign policy guidelines as seen by the 17th Government, emphasising the consistency, activeness and continuity in the foreign policy.
“NATO is and will remain the most important and effective collective defence system ensuring the security of the state, therefore, we will aim for the full implementation of the Warsaw Summit Decisions. We will continue the compliance with the NATO commitments, and our defence spending will amount to 1.8 % of GDP in 2017”, said the Head of Government.
The Prime Minister also noted Lithuania’s interest in having a strong, solid, constructive and effective EU, as this is also the most important driver of the political, economic and social development of the country. Therefore, Lithuania will seek a more active representation of public interest in the EU and the increased roles of the Member States in the EU institutions.
“We will seek to enhance the political, economic and cultural cooperation with all the countries based on the principles of mutual trust and benefit”, underlined the Prime Minister adding that Lithuania was determined to continue working consistently towards a closer cooperation and unity of the Baltic states, enhanced political and economic ties between the Baltic and the Scandinavian states and an open bilateral dialogue and cooperation with Poland in addressing the existing problems.
The Prime Minister also spoke about the continuity of the value-based Eastern Partnership policy, and as the main goal vis-à-vis Russia, he pointed out the need for more efforts to achieve from Russia’s side the abandoning of the use of force, military aggression and other unlawful actions in the international politics.
The Head of Government highlighted the importance of the Lithuanian business-friendly economic diplomacy and the membership of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, also pointed out that the safety of the Astravas NPP should concern the entire EU.
