The plan identified the objectives of the parliamentary diplomacy of the Seimas in 2017: maintaining the attention of the United States of America on the Baltic Sea region; strengthening of the unity of the European Union; mobilisation of support to Lithuania in its accession to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development; reversing the “low water” trend of the Eastern Partnership; strengthening of the assistance to Ukraine (in both Ukraine and the West), and pooling of international forces for joint action against the construction of the Astravyets nuclear power plant in Belarus.
In order to achieve these objectives, the following initiatives will be undertaken: visits of parliamentary delegations; participation in various meetings, seminars, conferences, lectures, consultations, etc.
The Seimas delegations plan to make the following visits to the Western power centres: 3 visits to the US Congress, meetings with the officials of the US President’s administration and analytical centres in the US; the Federal Republic of Germany — two visits; the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland — one visit; to the Republic of Poland — one visit; to the French Republic — one visit; to the Kingdom of the Netherlands — one visit, and 2 visits to the Kingdom of Belgium .
Seeking strategic support to Ukraine, four visits of the parliamentary delegations (committees) to Kyiv as well as visits and lectures in five regions of eastern Ukraine are planned. With a view to maintaining the importance of the Eastern Partnership policy, two visits to Georgia, one visit to Moldova, and consultations with the Belarusian opposition parties (in October 2017) in Belarus are scheduled.
Among other things, it is planned to abandon the tradition of arranging big joint meetings of the Baltic Assembly; the Assembly of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine; the Assembly of the Members of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and the Sejm and Senate of the Republic of Poland; the Assembly of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, the Sejm and Senate of the Republic of Poland, and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, replacing them by efficient visits of individual Assembly delegations (bilateral and trilateral delegations including members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine) to the Western power centres, Ukraine and other Eastern Partnership countries.
