Visit to NATO by the President of Lithuania – Joint Press Conference

Joint press point by the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the President of the Republic of Lithuania Mr. Gitanas Nauseda.

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Transcript

Good afternoon. The Secretary General and the President will make short introductory remarks and then we’ll have time for a couple of questions. Secretary General.

President Nauseda, Gitanas, Welcome to the NATO headquarters. It’s really a privilege and honor to meet you here. Because Lithuania is such a staunch and committed NATO ally. And therefore I appreciate this opportunity to also discuss a wide range of issues which are on the NATO agenda, with you. It is 70 years since NATO was founded. And 15 years since Lithuania joined the Alliance. Over those years, Lithuania has shown time and again it is a committed Ally. Your troops have helped to build security in Afghanistan. You host a multinational NATO battlegroup in Rukla, boosting our defense and deterrence. And you share expertise on energy security through the NATO Centre of Excellence in Vilnius. Lithuania also leads by example on defense spending, investing in major equipment, and committing to spend 2% of GDP on defense. NATO can rely on Lithuania. And Lithuania can rely on NATO. Allied jets keep your skies safe. Allied ships patrol the Baltic Sea. And NATO’s battlegroups are in the region helping to prevent conflict and preserve peace. NATO Allies also conduct regular training and exercises in Lithuania. We are now working to increase our levels of readiness so that our reinforcements provide even more effective deterrence. This shows the strength and the unity of our Alliance. So Mr. President, we have just discussed the current security situation. Including Russia’s responsibility for the demise of the INF Treaty. NATO will respond in a measured and responsible way to the threat posed by Russia’s SSC-8 system. Allies remain firmly committed to the preservation of effective international arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation. NATO does not want a new arms race and we have no intention to deploy new land-based nuclear missiles in Europe. But NATO must and will maintain credible and effective deterrence and defense. That is at the core of our mission. So President, thank you for your strong personal commitment to NATO. Last month Lithuania celebrated the anniversary of the Baltic Way. 30 years ago, nearly two million people formed a 600 kilometer human chain through Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. They were united in their drive for freedom and independence. Today, their dream is a reality. Lithuania is in NATO, and NATO is in Lithuania. NATO safeguards your independence and your security. As it does for every Ally. So once again, welcome. It’s a great pleasure to have you here and I’m pleased to give you the floor.

I’m very pleased Secretary General to have this early engagement with you and visit these truly impressive new headquarters, NATO headquarters. I appreciate your leadership in strengthening and adapting NATO. We are now a security and truth-based international order, heavily challenged. Russia’s attitude and model of behavior unfortunately do not change. Russia’s violations of key treaties continue as well as aggressive activities against our democracies. NATO has always been the backbone of Lithuania’s defense and security. It will be the top priority of my agenda as well. Mr. Secretary General, allow me to thank all the allies who contribute to the security of my country and the Baltic region, too, especially through enhanced forward presence which Lithuania is very happy to host, Baltic air policing, and assurance measures. We discussed the preparations for the NATO leaders meeting in London. It will be a great occasion to mark the 70th anniversary of our enduring alliance, united in our commitment to the Washington Treaty and the effective transatlantic bond. I can assure you today that Lithuania will put every effort to guarantee a lasting political commitment to the defense spending. We already spent 2% of GDP of defense and it is not the end as I told you today. Our agreement, national agreement between political parties for gradual increase of defense spending up to two and five percent until 2030. We also discussed the threats and challenges in our region and beyond. We must accelerate our work and fully implement all decisions state and national development. We have to be ready to protect and defend our countries’ people. We also have to assist and help our trusted partners and friends like Georgia and Ukraine in the path of Euro-Atlantic reforms and integration. Understanding the security challenges faced by Alliance and other regions, Lithuania will continue contributing to the Alliance missions and operations, strengthening global security and stability. I am looking forward to closely working with you Secretary General and all the Alliance in the run up to the leaders meeting in December and beyond. Let me repeat my invitation, personal invitation to Lithuania, because of a very serious reason. You are awarded Order of Vytautas the Great, is the Grand Duke of Lithuania, is waiting for you and please visit us as soon as possible and as your agenda allows to do that. Thank you very much.

[Host] Okay we’ll start with the Baltic News Agency. Gentleman with the beard over there.

[Journalist] Good afternoon, my name is (mumbles) I am a journalist from news agency Baltic News Service. I have a question for both Mr. President and Secretary General. Russian Belarus will conduct exercise Union Shield later, later this September. Do you have any information whether the Russian Belarus are planning to rehearse military actions against the Baltic Sea region in this exercise? Also Mr. President I would like to ask you what kind of additional measures did you ask to strengthen Baltic state security and Mr. Stoltenberg is NATO planning to provide these measures? Thank you.

Well what I can say is that every nation has the right to exercise their forces. What we have highlighted many times in NATO is that the exercises should live up to the standards agreed in the OC when it comes to transparency and notifications and so on. We know that very often that Russia doesn’t live up to those requirements, providing the necessary transparency and notifications of their exercises. So exercises it is part of what every nation does, but it has to be in a way which is in accordance with the agreed guidelines the agreements we have made in the OC when it comes to how to notify and inform about exercises. When it comes to security measures for the Baltic countries and Lithuania, NATO has significantly stepped up and we have done a lot. We have to remember before 2016, we had no NATO presence as a combat ready presence in the Baltic states. After the Warsaw Summit in 2016, where we agreed to deploy, for the first time in our history, combat ready troops to the eastern part of the alliance. We now have four battle groups in three Baltic countries and in Poland the strength of these battle groups is that they are combat ready, well equipped, well trained, but perhaps even more importantly they are multinational. They are NATO. So they send a very clear signal that to any potential adversary that any aggression against any Baltic state will trigger a response from the whole alliance. So NATO has already done a lot and we are then also of course constantly looking to the need for doing more.

Okay we have two words: deterrence and defense and we had a discussion about that we already have quite a high level of deterrence, but we still need much more to be done in the area of defense. We are very happy to host the enhanced foreign presence in Lithuania but it is not enough. So I think it is a matter of concern having in mind that especially there is a concentration of military forces in Kaliningrad. And we see that this threat is a really big threat for the security of Lithuania. As regards to Belarus, yes we fully understand that this country is not fully independent especially in the area of defense and military area, but we must be aware of this and we have to be prepared for possible actions made by those countries. We mentioned many times during our discussion the word dialog. Dialog is not needed not only with Russia, the dialog is needed also towards Belarus. And I am the man who wants to have the dialog with Belarus. No matter that the Belarus is building the nuclear power plant which is really not fulfilling all their standards and the quality criterias. We still want to have a better understanding of each other. So I will continue my efforts to rebuild the dialog with our neighbor and to try to solve all these problematic issues.

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