The Lithuanian president met with the presidents of Poland and Latvia and the foreign minister of Estonia to discuss the war in Ukraine, expanding support to Ukraine and strengthening the eastern flank of NATO.
During the meeting with regional partners, the Lithuanian president said that Russia's war in Ukraine would have lasting consequences on the security situation and architecture in the region. He also stressed the need to review NATO's existing defense plans in the light of increased Russian threat, to further boost allied forces in the region and to ensure a shift from deterrence to forward defense, the Lithuanian presidential press service said.
Nauseda underlined that military assistance to Ukraine was key at this moment. In his words, it has to be provided immediately as time is a decisive factor.
The Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, and Polish regional partners also addressed energy independence, with Nauseda saying that European countries had a unique opportunity to move away from energy dependence on Russia and should launch energy transformation without delay.
"This is not a question of saving the economy, it is a question of saving lives. By diversifying our energy supplies, we will no longer be energy hostages to the Kremlin regime, we will have a safer and more reliable energy system, and we will help Ukraine to stop the aggressor," the Lithuanian resident said.
The presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland and the foreign minister of Estonia agreed to continue to advocate strongly for Ukraine's rapid accession to the European Union and to urge EU institutions to speed up the bureaucratic procedures for granting candidate status to Ukraine.