“We must continue our work and fully implement all the measures agreed by NATO heads of state and government in Warsaw last year to boost the Alliance’s defence and deterrence posture,” said Lithuania’s Foreign Minister.
When addressing the threats from the east and the south, the Alliance has to make complex efforts, which is why, according to Linkevičius, it is important to continue the ongoing review of NATO structures, to increase the readiness of the forces and to ensure maximum facilitation of their mobility in Europe. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister argued that multilateral battalions, which had become an integral part of the Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian and Polish defence forces, confirmed that the Alliance was capable of meeting changing security challenges.
“We have included the issue of military mobility in the NATO-EU cooperation programme, because both organizations can make significant progress in removing administrative, legal and physical barriers for the movement of forces in Europe,” said Linkevičius.
The meeting on 5-6 December in Brussels also discussed prospects for strengthening the Alliance’s role in the fight against terrorism and for NATO’s ‘open door’ policy. The participants also discussed how to keep the countries seeking to join NATO on their Euro-Atlantic integration path. The attention was also given to the security situation and security sector reform in Georgia. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister emphasized that Georgia was consistently increasing its integration efforts by making full use of the existing practical tools and cooperation structures.
The Allied position on Russia’s hostile posture remains united – it is important to continue to insist that Russia should adhere to agreed international rules and principles. Sanctions and restrictive measures shall remain in place until Russia fulfils its international obligations. The annexation of the territory of sovereign countries is unacceptable.
When commenting illegal information, cyber and military measures to increase pressure, Linkevičius stressed that all this was a systematic and enormous activity that was funded from resources and should be seen as an integral part of a common strategy against democratic societies.
“Our experience shows that no NATO member country is immune to cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns or military provocations, thus we must invest more into our defence, the resilience of our societies, and focus on the most vulnerable points,” said Lithuania’s Foreign Minister.
