The Ministers stressed that energy diplomacy was an important EU foreign policy issue, so they had to pay permanent attention to it when seeking to address the emerging European external energy challenges. The Ministers highlighted the creation of the EU internal energy market and infrastructure, and a powerful European voice in interactions with third countries. All the Ministers mentioned the need to diversify energy sources and transit routes. Lithuania's Foreign Minister said that the energy dialogue with strategic partners should be among the EU priorities and underlined the need to strengthen cooperation with our major energy suppliers and transit countries, such as the USA, Norway, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.
When preparing for the European Council in June, the Ministers discussed issues related to the fight against terrorism, the EU security strategy review, strategic communication and the new EU naval operation in the Mediterranean.
Linkevičius called on his counterparts to boldly and clearly identify threats and take resolute measures to stop destabilising actions at the EU borders. According to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, the EU must review its strategy towards Russia and provide new guidelines for relations with this country.
Lithuania's Foreign Minister also positively assessed the preparation of the action plan on strategic communication and called for a united response to fight Russian propaganda. "The fight against propaganda has to be permanently placed on the EU foreign policy agenda," said the Minister.
In the meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Ministers discussed opportunities for cooperation between the EU and the UN. The Lithuanian Foreign Minister said that in order to deal with challenges and crises successfully, a close cooperation was necessary with the region's countries and international organizations. He also called on the UN to be more involved in ensuring the full implementation of the Minsk agreements and in addressing the issue of illegal migration in the Mediterranean Sea.
