Spring Session of the NATO PA to be held in Vilnius

Press release, 16 March 2022

The Spring Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (PA) will be held at the Seimas on 27–30 May 2022. Today, the Board of the Seimas has endorsed a respective decision.

This year’s Spring Session of the NATO PA was planned to be held in Kyiv, Ukraine, but due to the war launched by Russia, as an aggressor, against Ukraine, the Session has been urgently moved to Vilnius. Around 500 foreign guests are expected to attend the event hosted by the Seimas.

Audronius Ažubalis, Head of the Seimas Delegation to the NATO PA, points out that the moving of the Spring Session of the NATO PA from Kyiv to Vilnius bears a testimony to the tragedy that has struck Ukraine. However, he also sees it as an opportunity to join the efforts in mobilising stronger and more comprehensive NATO’s support for Ukraine and send a robust signal to the governments of NATO member countries about the need to move from deterrence to defence on the NATO’s eastern flank.

‘Each NATO PA Session is by far the most important political forum for the NATO allies. The Session customarily adopts documents that prompt national governments to act accordingly,’ Mr Ažubalis says.    

The NATO PA is an inter-parliamentary organisation where parliamentarians from the NATO countries, together with their non-NATO partners, discuss key political, security, and defence issues in the Euro-Atlantic region.

In Lithuania, the Spring Session of the NATO PA was last held in 2014, on the occasion of the country’s 10th anniversary of the membership of the Organisation. Prior to that, Lithuania hosted a NATO PA Session in 2001.

Rimas Rudaitis, Advisor, Press Office,

Information and Communication Department,

e-mail: [email protected]