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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 09:35

Slovakian and Lithuanian presidents discussed EU and NATO concerns and energy security

Petras Vaida, BC, Vilnius, 06.06.2011.Print version
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite met with President Ivan Gasparovic of the Slovak Republic who arrived in Lithuania on an official visit. The two Heads of State discussed bilateral relations, issues of concern related to the European Union and NATO, the EU Eastern Neighborhood Policy, and cooperation in ensuring nuclear safety and energy security, the presidential press service reports BC.

Ivan Gasparovic and Dalia Grybauskaite. Vilnius, 6.06.2011. Photo: president.lt

The Lithuanian President informed the Slovak President of her letter urging EU leaders to take concrete steps to ensure that nuclear power plants in the EU neighborhood are subjected to highest safety standards and nuclear stress tests.

 

The Slovak President expressed his country's support to Lithuania's calls to ensure that the nuclear power plants underway in the Kaliningrad region and Belarus close to the Lithuanian border comply with international safety and environmental standards and to guarantee the provision of transparent and publicly accessible information about these plants.

 

"Lithuania and Slovakia continue their nuclear energy traditions but strongly advocate that further development of nuclear energy is possible only provided that highest safety and transparency requirements have been ensured and that governments share information on their ongoing nuclear projects. Open and benevolent cooperation on nuclear safety issues would increase further the trust between the EU and its neighbors and ensure a safe future for European citizens," President Dalia Grybauskaite said.

 

Discussing issues of concern to the European Union, the two Presidents underlined that Lithuania and Slovakia would cooperate actively in the negotiations for the EU's new financial perspective with a view to equal distribution of resources among old and new Member States. The Lithuanian and Slovakian Presidents also agreed on the need to strengthen efforts towards their common priorities: the Cohesion Policy, the Common Agricultural Policy, the development of power links with a view to breaking energy isolation of EU regions. According to President Grybauskaite, Slovakia's actions to guarantee energy security stand a perfect example for Lithuania. Previously dependent on a single supplier, Slovakia implemented the Third Energy Package already in 2007 and took other active measures to ensure alternative supply of gas, by constructing a gas storage facility and gas interconnections with Hungary and Poland.

 

The Lithuanian and Slovakian Presidents also discussed the Eastern European summit meeting with US President Obama a couple of weeks ago in Warsaw and reiterated their support to NATO's cooperation with Russia, but with antimissile defense of NATO countries to be provided exclusively by NATO. After a meeting of delegations, Lithuanian and Slovakian representatives signed an agreement on bilateral cooperation in culture.

 

This is the second visit by the Slovak Head of State in Lithuania. The first visit was paid by President Ivan Gasparovic to Lithuania in 2005.






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