Press release, 15 March 2013

The participation of Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the EU Eastern Partnership Summit hosted in Vilnius on 28–29 November 2013 is highly anticipated. This has been confirmed by Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas and Chair of the Committee on European Affairs, at the meeting with Kornelis Willem Spaans, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Republic of Lithuania.

The EU Eastern Partnership Summit is one of the most important events of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands has recommended the country’s Prime Minister to attend this meeting and it has been included into the Prime Minister’s agenda. Recently, the Dutch position on the Eastern Partnership has changed significantly: there are considerations that Ukraine is strategically important.

The Chair of the Committee on European Affairs and the Dutch Ambassador also noted that in 2017 the Dutch Air Force will renew its participation in the NATO air policing mission contributing to the security of the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian airspace. Previously, the Dutch soldiers guarded the Baltic airspace in the first half of the year 2005.

Morta Vidūnaitė,  Adviser to Gediminas Kirkilas, Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, tel: +370 5 239 6278, e-mail: [email protected]

Jolita Siriūtė, Chief Specialist, Inter-Parliamentary Relations Unit, International Relations Department, Office of the Seimas, tel:  +370 5 239 6218, e-mail: [email protected]