Excellency, Madam. Speaker,

Honourable Members of the Seimas,

Thank you very much for inviting me to address you here in the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania in my capacity as President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. It is an honour and a privilege.

I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to you, Madam Speaker, and Petras Austrevicius, the Head of the Lithuanian Delegation to the NATO PA, for inviting me to your country to make one of my first presidential visits. I’d like to thank you both and the whole Lithuanian delegation for hosting me here in your parliament.

It’s a pleasure for me to see many members of the Seimas who have been associated with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. In particular, I would like to acknowledge Česlovas Stankevicius, who led the first parliamentary delegation to participate in our Assembly.

And I am very glad to meet here Rasa Juknevičienė and Audronius Azubalis who I worked closely with in our Assembly, and who are now serving as Minister of Defense and Minister of Foreign Affairs.   I must also mention Snieguole Ziukaite Head of the International Organisations Division in the International Relations Department who has served as delegation secretary for twenty years.

I am convinced I couldn’t have come at a better time, the year when you commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Day of the Defenders of Freedom, and the 21st anniversary of the restoration of Lithuania ’s independence. I suppose, these anniversaries encourage you to reflect upon what you have won in these severe struggles: You have fought for sovereignty. I pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the fight for Lithuania ’s future.

I will never forget those pictures of the cold days of January 1991, of people, standing closely together, singing, protecting the Seimas and the television tower − people fighting for self-determination, for an independent and free country. You fought for your freedom, and you won. To the benefit of all of us!

By impressively reclaiming freedom and independence, you also won solidarity and partnership with your Western neighbours. These struggles paved the way for Lithuania to join the Euro-Atlantic family.

I’d like to quote George Bernard Shaw who said once: “Liberty is the breath of life to nations.” 

20 years ago, through bravery, determination and effort, Lithuania started to breath again. And the Seimas was at the centre of the historic events which changed not just Lithuania, but the map of Europe.

The Seimas also has a special place in the history of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.  Lithuania was among the first to become an Associate Member of our Assembly, and it was the very first to host one of our outreach seminars outside Brussels. You led the way for many other countries.

That meeting took place in December 1991 here in Vilnius when the future was still uncertain, and the sandbags were still in place in the Seimas.

That NATO PA meeting was the largest international gathering that had taken place in Vilnius that year, and it conveyed a message of concern and support for the Lithuanian people. It also led to the first contacts between the Russian forces in the Baltic and Lithuania ’s new political leadership. These exchanges led to the withdrawal of those forces two years later.

From those early days, your parliamentarians played an active role in our Assembly, and our Assembly in turn championed Lithuania ’s entry into NATO.  Indeed, the Assembly consistently expressed its support for successive rounds of NATO enlargement, including that which in 2004 brought Lithuania into our Atlantic Alliance.

From the very beginning, I personally supported Lithuania ’s efforts to become fully integrated into European institutions and organizations and especially into the security alliance of NATO. It was and is my firm conviction: We belong together!

In light of the new challenges that became evident after the collapse of the Soviet Union and in view of NATO’s need for transformation, I was convinced that new members would bring fresh perspectives to the Alliance and would help to make sure that it maintains its relevance to the security challenges of today.

Indeed, it is just seven years since Lithuania ’s aspiration to NATO membership was fulfilled, and I would like to stress the importance of Lithuania. Your country is a reliable and great ally. You play an important role in our common efforts for peace and security in the world.

Lithuania is also a successful and highly respected member of the European Union and many other organizations.

In January this year, your country took over the OSCE-Presidency and in 2013 Lithuania will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. I am sure that you will lead both Presidencies to success.

Regarding NATO, your country’s role is more essential than ever before. The Alliance must address threats as diverse as international terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, cyber-warfare, the disruption of energy supplies, and piracy.

We will be able to face these challenges and to prepare NATO for a successful future − if we stand together closely.

I am therefore very glad that the Alliance ’s commitment to common defence – the importance of Article 5 – was reaffirmed at the NATO Summit in Lisbon last November. That was the principle on which NATO was founded more than 60 years ago. And today it is even more important that we remember this principle during these challenging days and recall the strengths of our Alliance.

NATO is the only politico-military institution in the world able to successfully establish and maintain stability and peace. NATO stands for military missions and civil support. As such, it provides assistance after natural disasters, it transports relief supplies and helps to build civil societies.

Yet many people are unaware of these aspects of NATO.

NATO seeks to establish stability and democratic development in Afghanistan. Recently, NATO took over the responsibility for protecting the civilian population in Libya.

NATO’s operations, particularly ISAF, are not undertaken easily. They involve grave risks and sacrifices, and military, personnel and financial commitments which can be difficult to sustain.

We very much appreciate your military-civil commitment, displayed by the 200 troops you have sent to Afghanistan and by your participation in the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Ghor Province, as well as in training of the Afghan army, air corps, and police force.

In the context of the various, severe challenges connected to the NATO activities in Afghanistan, let me take this opportunity to salute Lithuania ’s great commitment to building stability in Afghanistan. Your country was hit very hard by the financial crisis. That makes your efforts even more noteworthy.

It is through such efforts that we will build an Afghanistan which is able to provide its own security and its own governance. And we should also not forget that this mission is important for our own security as well, and we must explain this to our own people.

I cannot thank you enough for your solidarity and your contributions to NATO’s activities.

As parliamentarians, we have a particular role to play in allocating the forces and the resources to sustain operations such as these. We also have a key role to play in explaining why NATO must be engaged in building security beyond our own national borders. Let us think about the idea of introducing a NATO Day that will help to make NATO, its objectives and activities better known and more understandable.

I think, regarding the need to make NATO more comprehensible, you are already pursuing a wise and promising approach: You offered to host another NATO PA spring session in 2014 in your country.

This will be the year when Lithuania will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of its accession to NATO, and I would like to thank the Speaker of the Seimas, Mrs Irena Degutiene, for inviting us to be part of those celebrations.

Your offer is one of the numerous examples of your strong commitment to NATO and our Assembly. And as much as Lithuania is committed to NATO, NATO member states are committed to Lithuania that twenty years ago fought for those values that make up our Alliance ’s very foundation: democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law, and human rights.

Being here in Lithuania reminds me to never forget our common values. Keeping those in mind will help us to overcome our common challenges.

John F. Kennedy may have said it best:

“We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.”

Thank you very much.

_______ENDS_______