“I very much welcome the second bilateral Defence Council we have just had and the progress made on the priority areas of cooperation. Poland is a strategic partner to Lithuania. We are bound together not only by our shared history but also by shared security challenges. Both, Poland and Lithuania see eye to eye on the security threats in the region and the measures necessary to counter them,” Minister A. Anušauskas said after the meeting.
The first time Lithuanian and Polish Defence Ministers met in the format was last year in January in Vilnius. The Lithuanian-Polish Defence Council is held on the basis of a joint declaration of Presidents of Lithuania and Poland on partnership in the area of security which was signed on 21 February 2019. It lays out the agreement to join forces to achieve cornerstone goals for regional security bilaterally and in the formats of NATO and the EU.
A. Anušauskas and M. Blaszczak also discussed further cooperation and practical aspects in the areas of defence planning, air defence, maritime awareness, acquisitions, and military mobility. Ministers agreed on the need for continued cooperation in the area and the critical importance of U.S. presence in the region to both countries. According to Minister A. Anušauskas, Lithuania and Poland have a shared ambition of a persistent U.S. troop presence in the region.
Lithuanian and Polish Ministers of National Defence solidified the closer cooperation between the countries with a signature of a joint communique.
