Media release of
8 April 2009
Speaker of the
Seimas started his official visit to Warsaw meeting with Speaker of the Sejm of
the Republic of Poland Bronislaw Komorowski.
Mr. Valinskas
noted that the two countries and nations were connected by a common history of
both prominent events and painful moments, and that a lot had been done in
recent decades in developing cooperation of our countries in politics,
economics, regional cooperation and other areas.
“However, today,
when celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Lithuanian-Polish
agreement on friendly relations and good neighbourhood cooperation, we have to
take a new look at the relations of our states, expand and develop mutual
cooperation of our countries and nations. Concerning our bilateral relations, a
lot of attention has been recently paid to the issues of national minorities. We
suggest focussing on the new quality of our relations in the context of
membership of our countries in the EU and NATO, and solving other issues
through a well-wishing and constructive dialogue. We can, we must, and we will
do it,” said the Speaker of the Seimas.
The Head of the
Parliament informed that the Seimas had already registered a draft Seimas
resolution on addressing the Constitutional Court regarding clarification
whether printing a person’s name and surname in the official language together
with the indication of the name and surname in other non-Lithuanian alphabet
letters (in the cases of non-Lithuanian nationals) in personal identity
documents issued in Lithuania is allowed by law.
The Speaker of
the Seimas offered to the Speaker of the Polish Sejm to consider how the two
countries could mark the approaching 600th anniversary of the Battle
of Žalgiris (Battle of Grunwald).
Speaker of the
Seimas Mr. Valinskas also met with President of the Republic of Poland Lech
Kaczynski. The Head of the Parliament expressed a hope that the planned
visit of the President of Poland to Lithuania would also contribute to the new
quality of strategic relations.
“Today we should
focus more on economic and communication matters and infrastructure projects,”
said Mr. Valinskas. Participants of the meeting agreed that they should discuss
common issues such as membership in NATO and the EU, as well as the Eastern
Partnership Programme.
Indrė Viržintė,
Spokesperson of the Seimas Speaker