Other events in Baltic States
International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics
Thursday, 25.04.2024, 18:38
Trump to meet with Baltic presidents in White House in April
US President Donald Trump is to
meet with the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in the White House on
Apr. 3, diplomats said on Thursday, reports LETA/BNS.
Lithuanian President Dalia
Grybauskaite plans to discuss security issues and the agenda of NATO's July
summit during the meeting in Washington, D.C., her adviser Nerijus Aleksiejunas told BNS.
"The key topics will be security and (...) the upcoming NATO
summit," he said.
According to the diplomat, issues of major importance to Lithuania include
the presence of NATO battalions and the United States in the region and the
strengthening of its air defense.
Economic relations, including US liquefied natural gas imports to
Lithuania, are also among issues planned to be discussed during the meeting, he
said.
Aleksiejunas noted that the US has given a high diplomatic status to the visit,
which is called in the diplomatic language a US-Baltic summit, rather than a
working visit.
Eastern European countries were worried by Trump' presidential election
campaign promise to improve relations with Russia and his statements that NATO
was "obsolete". Lithuanian officials are watching with concern the
US president's rows with America's allies in Europe and his often
unpredictable behavior.
An opinion poll showed earlier this month that two-thirds of Lithuanians
did not trust Trump to make the right decisions on key political issues.
However, diplomats and Trump's supporters underline that he softened his
rhetoric about NATO after becoming US president and that officials in his
administration pay great attention to the Baltic countries.
After Russia annexed Ukraine's region of Crimea in 2014, the US immediately
sent several hundreds of troops to each Baltic country. The American companies
were withdrawn following the deployment of NATO's multinational battalions in
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and US troops now come for training from
neighboring Poland.