The President and the newly appointed ambassadors discussed topical regional issues, cooperation in the format of eight Nordic and Baltic countries (NB8), regional security, energy, cyber and hybrid threats as well as the issues Europe faced due to the spread of the COVID-19.
During the meetings with ambassadors, the situation in Belarus was also addressed. The President highlighted that Lithuania did not recognize Alexander Lukashenko as elected President of Belarus. According to the President, democratic states should stand by the people of Belarus and ensure that their voices were heard and that those responsible for brutal actions against protestors were held accountable.
At the meeting with the new Estonian Ambassador, the President emphasized that “the Baltic bubble” was a good demonstration of the Baltic unity, like-mindedness and efficiency, and said that we needed to adapt it to new realities now. Lithuania and Estonia are also linked by excellent security and defense cooperation.
As to relations between Lithuania and Norway, the President said that Norway was Lithuania’s important, close and reliable ally and we enjoyed successful cooperation in many areas, including energy security, economy and defense. According to the President, Lithuania highly valued Norway’s participation in the enhanced forward presence force in Rukla as well as their contribution to NATO air policing missions to the Baltic States.
Lithuania and Finland share intense and dynamic economic partnership as well as excellent cooperation on regional security issues. According to the President, Lithuania valued Finland‘s support and involvement of Finnish cyber rapid response teams in PESCO projects. Vilnius is prepared to accommodate EU cyber security center of excellence and to embrace it into the growing international community of IT and technology competence in Lithuania.
