News

In the town of Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad region, on 4 December terminated the 5th session of the Intergovernmental Lithuanian-Russian Commission for Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical, Humanitarian and Cultural Cooperation. During the session an Agreement between the Lithuanian Government and the Russian Government concerning the navigation within the Curonian Lagoon and in the water routes of Lithuania and those of Russia’s Kaliningrad region was signed.

The Intergovernmental Lithuanian-Russian Commission, which is co-chaired by Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas and Russian Minister of Transport Igor Levitin, also discussed the issues of the Lithuanian-Russian trade and economic cooperation, as well as it approved of the initiative of Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists to establish a permanent Lithuanian-Russian business forum. The first session of the forum is due in the first half of 2008 in Vilnius.

During the session, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairsindicated that Lithuania, as the neighbour of Russia’s Kaliningrad region and one of the main trade partners and investors in the region, always bore close and intensive relations with this region.

“Understanding perfectly moods and expectations of the residents of the Kaliningrad region, Lithuania even before becoming a Member State of the European Union started raising the issue of the Kaliningrad region in Europe. I think that the big attention paid by the international community and the European Union to Kaliningrad is to a large extent the merit of the active Lithuanian foreign policy. And this is the beginning of a beneficial road to success,” said Minister P.Vaitiekūnas.

Minister P.Vaitiekūnas marked that Lithuania spoke up for a close and mutually beneficial cooperation, as this was our neighbourhood policy and the goal of the whole EU.

“If the strategic partnership with Russia is important for the European Union, then it is even more important for the EU Member States that are the neighbours of Russia. We are the first to win or to lose, when the manner of the EU-Russian relationship changes. The quality and the scope of this relationship are particularly important to us,” said P.Vaitiekūnas.

The Commission also discussed the issues of social and cultural cooperation, regional relations and tourism development, cooperation in the areas of transport, border infrastructure and the environment protection.

The important for Lithuania issue of securing gas supply and resuming oil supply via the pipe-line Druzhba was also raised at the Intergovernmental Commission. Russia informed the participants of the meeting about the technical condition of the pipe-line Druzhba. The participants of the session also raised the issues of the investment security, the return of the foreign currency deposits of Lithuanian citizens, which were kept in the Lithuanian division of the former Vneshekonombank, the return of the cultural values and the archives that were taken out. The Commission obliged experts to convene in order to solve financial matters.