On Wednesday V. Umbrasas underscored at a meeting with Deputy NATO Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller that NATO adaptation had to be further developed with a focus on air defence and military mobility through cooperation with the EU in order to strengthen the Alliance’s capabilities and deterrence along the eastern border.
Vice Minister and high-ranking NATO official also discussed international security, and Russia’s actions both in the Baltic Sea region and the wide context. They also focussed on the situation in eastern Ukraine and themes for the upcoming NATO Summit.
Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service Pedro Serrano and Vice Minister V. Umbrasas discussed the progress on the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) projects, ways of fulfilling the commitments the countries already had, key NATO and EU projects, and presented work results of the Lithuanian-led initiative of establishing rapid cyber response teams.
Vice Minister also stressed that Lithuania was contributing to the military mobility projects and is prepared to keep a constructive dialogue with EU institutions in order to ensure development of military mobility in the Baltic region.
Vie Minister V. Umbrasas encouraged the EU to further render active support to Eastern Partnership countries when addressing the situation in eastern Ukraine. Representatives of the European External Action Service are also invited to the Eastern Partnership Conference organised in Lithuania this fall, the event will be aimed at accelerating the defence reform of Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova and strengthening security and defence cooperation through NATO an EU initiatives.
On April 9-11 Vice Minister of National Defence Vytautas Umbrasas took part in the annual off-site meeting of the Council for the European Union of the Lithuanian Government in Brussels and work meetings with EU representatives. The meetings addressed topical issues on the EU agenda including the financial prospect for the EU in the long-term, Brexit process, and the agenda of the upcoming top-level meetings.
