Press release, 8 April 2013
Vydas Gedvilas, Speaker of the Seimas, met with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO Secretary General, at NATO
headquarters in Brussels on 8 April 2013.
The meeting focused on the implementation of the agreement
between the Lithuanian parliamentary parties on the funding of the
national defence system. The agreement lays down a commitment to gradually
increase annual allocations to the national defence system and pursue a goal of
2% of GDP. The Speaker of the Seimas informed the NATO Secretary General about
the approval of the roadmap, the Implementation Measures of the Programme of
the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. The document provides for 1% of
GDP to be allocated to national defence in 2016. The NATO Secretary General
noted the importance to ensure the efficiency of the defence budget.
The NATO Secretary General thanked Lithuania for its
active engagement in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
operation in Afghanistan and expressed hope that Lithuania would continue its presence
in the new NATO mission after 2014.
The Speaker of the Seimas and the NATO Secretary
General also discussed the upcoming NATO Response Force exercise Steadfast Jazz 2013 due to be conducted
in Poland and the Baltic States in autumn. Mr Gedvilas
invited the NATO Secretary General to honour the exercise with his presence. Mr
Rasmussen said that NATO would make efforts to ensure that exercises of this
kind would be held on a regular basis.
During the meeting, the Speaker of the Seimas was
pleased to note the establishment of the NATO Energy Security Centre of
Excellence in Lithuania and expressed his gratitude for NATO’s support along
the way. He reassured Mr Rasmussen that the Centre would become a valuable
instrument seeking to ensure energy efficiency in the military of NATO member
countries as well as in their missions and operations.
Artūras Zeleniakas, Public Relations Unit, tel: +370 5 239 6201, e-mail: [email protected]
