The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Lithuania to pay damages to a Saudi national who was detained at a secret CIA prison in the country, BNS reports. The court found that the man was held at the so-called black site near Vilnius for more than five months in 2005-2006. The man, who…
Russia may launch attacks against the Baltic States or Poland, Lithuania’s Defence Minister, Robertas Kaunas, warned, LRT reports. Being unable to win the war against Ukraine, Russia may target the Baltic States or Poland to secure “some kind of new win,” Kaunas suggested. He said that Lithuania was drawing up additional contingency plans to respond…
Lithuania’s new government is not expected to make any major changes in foreign policy, LRT reports. Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius named regional security, Baltic cooperation, and strengthening ties with the US as his priorities, BNS and The Baltic Times reported. The government calls for a more united Europe, while maintaining strategic partnerships with Germany, Poland,…
At their summit in the Turkish capital, Ankara, NATO leaders decided to turn the alliance’s rotating Baltic Air Policing mission into an air defence mission, ERR reported. The change will allow NATO fighter aircraft to respond more rapidly to threats in Baltic airspace. NATO’s air operations centre in Uedem, Germany, will have authority to decide…
The Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, has approved the programme of incoming Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius’s coalition government, BNS reported. Altogether 72 MPs voted for, 29 against, and 4 abstained. After the vote, the government’s ministers were officially sworn in to their posts. The new coalition includes Sinkevicius’s Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, the Union of…
A majority of members of the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, have signed a letter of protest against China’s new “law on ethnic unity,” BNS reported. In the letter sent to the Chinese embassy in Tallinn, the MPs noted that the law was aimed at assimilating ethnic minorities living in China, including Mongols, Tibetans, and Uyghurs….
Russia may be planning provocations against the Baltic States or Poland to test NATO unity, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics warned, BNS and LETA reported. Nauseda said that intelligence indicated that Russia could be preparing “targeted kinetic operations” against critical infrastructure in the region. Rinkevics said that the intelligence reports pointed…
China appears open to talks on normalising diplomatic relations with Lithuania, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Lithuanian parliament, Remigijus Motuzas of the ruling Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), stated, BNS reports. Speaking after a briefing by Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys, Motuzas said that China was “inclined to meet, communicate, and negotiate”…
Lithuania’s incoming new prime minister, Mindaugas Sinkevicius, chairman of the country’s ruling Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), has presented his proposed cabinet of ministers to President Gitanas Nauseda, BNS reports. LSDP has nominated nine ministers to the new coalition government: Lukas Alsys for culture minister, Ieva Andriulaityte for environment minister, Kestutis Budrys for foreign minister,…
