Press Releases

President discussed bilateral security and defence cooperation with German Defence Minister

The discussion in the meeting focussed on Lithuanian-German cooperation in the field of security and defence, security challenges to the euroatlantic community, NATO-EU relations, and the future of these organisations.

The President underlined in the meeting that Lithuania highly valued its NATO membership and would seek to remain an active member of the Alliance, contributing to peace and stability in the region.

President Adamkus said, "We support strongly the development of the new concept of NATO security, EU-NATO cooperation, and further enlargement of the North Atlantic Alliance."

The Defence Minister underlined that the development of NATO's new security concept was timely and much needed today. According to him, this process must involve all new members of the Alliance, whereas NATO itself must ensure collective defence and strengthen its military response forces so that it can give immediate response when the need arises. The Defence Minister stressed the need to maintain NATO's public visibility and said that Germany was currently getting ready for already third air-policing mission in the Baltic States.

Discussing the issue of further enlargement of NATO, the President and the Minister agreed on the need to implement the commitment concerning future membership of Ukraine and Georgia in the Alliance agreed on already in the Bucharest Summit in April 2008. The President underlined that the prospect of membership encouraged democratic processes in these countries and promoted stability in the whole region.

Another issue discussed was NATO relations with the European Union and the NATO-Russian dialogue.

"EU and NATO solidarity is very important for us. I believe the euroatlantic community will continue to be strongly committed to this value-based policy," Mr. Adamkus said.