News

19-20 November the President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė took part in the NATO summit in Lisbon.

Lithuania has a positive view on the summit results: the allied agreement that NATO remains effective, efficient and modern political military Alliance, able to ensure the collective defense of its members and to respond to the modern security threats and challenges.

Among the key elements of the new NATO Strategic concept adopted in Lisbon are:

·        determination of the Alliance to protect its members according to the Article 5 of the Washington Treaty;

·        commitment to prepare the necessary capabilities and defense plans, and to conduct exercises in the Member States;

·        NATO remains the main Transatlantic forum in which nations from Europe and North America discuss security issues;

·        NATO door remains open to all European democracies, able to contribute to the Euro-Atlantic security.

The decision to develop the NATO Missile Defence system will be important in strengthening Lithuanian security. The willingness to engage more in energy security issues is also of significance, as Lithuania is one of the countries that advocate bigger NATO involvement in this area.

The meeting of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) contributing nations decided to start the transition process through which the responsibility for security in Afghanistan would be given to the Afghan Government. It will be important for the Allies to strengthen their training activity in the country. For this purpose Lithuania, which leads a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Ghowr province, Afghanistan, together with the United States of America founded a police mentoring team.