Rasa Juknevičienė, Member of the NATO PA Political Committee: NATO needs to honour its commitment and keep its door open

The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania has been further holding the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) Spring Session. Today the session participants presented their reports at the sitting of the NATO PA Political Committee and discussed the enlargement in Eastern Europe, possibilities to develop transatlantic cooperation, NATO and Russia’s relations, and the situation in Afghanistan.

The sitting heard the Draft Report “NATO Partnerships and the Open-Door Policy of the Alliance” of the Sub-Committee on NATO Partnerships presented by Rasa Juknevičienė, Deputy Head of the Seimas Delegation to the NATO PA. In her opinion, NATO partnerships have become increasingly important for the Alliance, so it should revisit its partnership activities with a view to deepening existing partnerships and building new ones. “NATO enlargement has been instrumental in spreading stability and security throughout Europe. The Alliance needs to continue its Open Door Policy and encourage applicant countries to continue their reforms,” the Lithuanian representative said. Juknevičienė was convinced that for the upcoming Summit in Wales in September the evaluation of NATO’s Partnership and Open Door policies would be high on the agenda, particularly in the context of the crisis over Crimea.

“However, while practical co-operation, especially on the military-to-military level, has produced positive results, NATO-Russia relations have, overall, fallen short of their promise. There have been frictions in NATO-Russia relations on several issues, particularly NATO’s enlargement to the East, missile defence, arms control, the reduction of nuclear and conventional weapons and Russia’s approach to neighbouring countries,” the reporter stressed. She marked that Russia’s military incursion into Georgia in 2008 and the continued presence of Russian troops on Georgian, and Moldovan soil remained points of contention. “Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 –– which has been strongly criticized by all Allies –– certainly represents the low point in NATO-Russia relations. In response, the North Atlantic Council suspended all practical civilian and military cooperation between NATO and Russia. NATO declared its willingness to continue the political dialogue within the NATO-Russia Council as necessary. Before NATO can consider re-establishing co-operation with Russia on the pre-Ukraine crisis level, Russia needs to implement concrete steps that de-escalate the crisis and refrain from any further interference and aggressive actions in Ukraine,” the Deputy Head of the Seimas Delegation to the NATO PA emphasized.

According to Juknevičienė, NATO and its Allies should continue their support to applicant countries, which need to make further progress in their reforms to meet the Alliance standards. Additionally, she noted that NATO should also offer the Membership Action Plan to Georgia at the Wales Summit.

In his address to the sitting of the NATO PA Political Committee, Linas Linkevičius, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, marked that we should really be consistent. “I shouldn’t say that we should really be aggressive, but we should continue pressing one of the parties of the conflict, which has not changed so far, and sanctions should not be removed from our agenda. [...] And not only economic sanctions that are developed by the European Commission should be imposed and, if necessary, discussed,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs said. Linkevičius was confident that also the so-called second phase, targeted measures, should be applied against officials who are taking decisions or related persons. “We should use all possible means. If we will not succeed, we will lose and we will have headache somewhere else. Rationally speaking, Russia is ruining its own economy, currency is going down,” the Minister maintained.

On the other hand, Linkevičius also noticed one achievement of Russia. “Rating of President Putin with the highest rates, 90 per cent, is also alarming. If you mismanage economy, nationalism becomes the last resort. It has some effect for a short period, but it could be a very big drama in the future. Let’s not be relaxed too much, let’s not take it at ease, because this is really very serious what is happening”, Minister of Foreign Affairs Linkevičius stressed.

Finally, the NATO PA Political Committee will hear the Draft General Report “The Evolving Security Dynamics at NATO’s South‑Eastern Border –– Implications for Transatlantic Co-operation” by Ojārs Ēriks Kalniņš, Member of Parliament from Latvia, and the Draft Report of the Sub-Committee on Transatlantic Relations “NATO after 2014” by Jadwiga Zakrzewska, Member of Parliament from Poland.

Rimas Rudaitis, Public Relations Unit, Communications Department, Office of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6132, e-mail: [email protected]