The congress of Lithuania’s liberal Freedom Party has elected former MP Tomas Vytautas Raskevicius as the party’s new chairman, BNS reports. Raskevicius replaces Ausrine Armonaite, who resigned after the party failed to win any seats in the recent elections to the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas. Raskevicius chaired the parliament’s human rights committee in 2020-2024. Freedom…
The Estonian Centre Party (Keskerakond) may wait until some time in 2025 to decide which political group to join in the European Parliament, the party’s chairman, Mihhail Kõlvart, announced, ERR reports. He said that the party would not rush the decision. In the previous parliament, Keskerakond was a member of the Renew Europe/ALDE group but…
Several well-known politicians in Latvia were employed as fake consultants by Riga’s municipal public transport company, Rigas Satiksme, according to LTV’s De Facto programme, LETA reports. A court in Riga has accepted Rigas Satiksme’s plea deal, which identifies 16 fictional consultants, including several members of the company’s board and municipal councillors. Some of them represent…
China’s Foreign Ministry has condemned Lithuania’s decision to expel three Chinese diplomats, Reuters reports. The ministry asserted that Lithuania had failed to provide a reason for the expulsions. China reserved the right to take countermeasures, the ministry said. Earlier, Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry announced that the expulsions were due to violations of the Vienna Convention on…
The three Baltic states have agreed to impose national sanctions against those who suppressed legitimate protests in Georgia, Civil Georgia reports. In their joint statement, the Baltic foreign ministers said that “opponents of democracy and violators of human rights are not welcome in our countries.” Meanwhile, all three Baltic presidents phoned their Georgian counterpart, Salome…
Canada’s Foreign Minister, Mélanie Joly, is visiting Latvia on 1-4 December 2024 to attend the second 3+1 meeting of Baltic and Canadian foreign ministers, Global Affairs Canada announced. The ministers will discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO’s deterrence and defence posture in Eastern Europe, and other regional and global challenges to peace and security. Joly…
The leader of Lithuania’s far-right Dawn of Nemunas party, Remigijus Zemaitaitis, announced that his party was likely to nominate Virginijus Kulikauskas, former head of the Lithuanian Prison Service, to the position of justice minister, ELTA reports. Earlier, former justice minister, lawyer Gintautas Bartkus declined the party’s nomination to the ministerial post. Meanwhile, President Gitanas Nauseda…
The EU’s new foreign policy chief, former Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas, and the President of the European Council, António Costa, are visiting Kyiv to show support for Ukraine on their first day in office, ERR reports. Kallas stressed that the situation in Ukraine was “very, very serious.” She acknowledged that it was becoming increasingly…
The chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, Marko Mihkelson, urged South Korea to consider stronger support for Ukraine, including military assistance, The Korea Herald reports. If Russia prevails in its war of aggression against Ukraine, the stability and security situation will worsen not only in Europe but also in…