At the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, the meeting was attended by the leaders of Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Sweden.
The President emphasized the need for a response to recent developments. He stressed that Ukraine must not be left alone in this cocktail of narratives highly unfavorable to Ukraine. “Despite ongoing attempts to negotiate with Russia, we must continue to support Ukraine,” he stated.
According to the President, yesterday's developments in Riyadh left a lot of room for concern, especially as the meeting on Ukraine took place without the participation of Ukraine or Europe. He underlined that the accusations against President Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia’s war in Ukraine shift the blame from the victim country to the aggressor country. Sanctions against Russia can only be lifted when the aggression is stopped, and elections in Ukraine cannot be a prerequisite for peace talks. They can only take place in a country at peace.
During the meeting, the President called for accelerating Ukraine's EU membership, proposing a target accession date of 2030, and moving with opening the first negotiation cluster in the coming weeks. He also said that transatlantic cooperation has been and continues to be the foundation of the global security architecture.
Gitanas Nausėda stressed that this meeting cannot conclude with a mere agreement to hold another meeting. “We must act now and put concrete measures on the table – not just participate in ongoing discussions but actively steer them in the right direction,” the President said. He outlined Lithuania's key proposals: additional funding for the urgent procurement of weapons for Ukraine, a €10 billion injection in Ukraine’s defense industry, seizure of Russia’s frozen assets, tariffs on all imports from Russia and Belarus, and the strengthening of sanctions against Russia.
