NATO allies have deployed additional capabilities to safeguard the NATO summit in Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius on 11-12 July 2023, ERR reports. Germany has stationed 12 Patriot air defence batteries, Spain has sent NASAMS air defence systems, and France will deploy Caesar mobile artillery in Lithuania. Also, Denmark, Finland, and France will station fighter…
Lithuania’s state-owned rail freight operator, LTG Cargo, plans to buy electric locomotives for around EUR 100mn to transport cargo between Vilnius and the port of Klaipeda, Baltic News Network reports. The company has launched an international public procurement procedure for the purchase of the electric locomotives, technical maintenance, and supply of spare parts for at…
Lithuania has reintroduced border control measures, which will remain in place until the end of the NATO summit in Vilnius, BNS reports. Border checks will be carried out from 8am on 7 July 2023 until 8am on 13 July 2023. Travellers crossing internal EU borders will have to present a valid travel document and third-country…
Estonia’s Defence Minister, Hanno Pevkur, voiced satisfaction at the details of NATO’s new defence plans for the Baltic region, ERR reports. He said that there were no outstanding points of contention regarding the plans ahead of the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. Discussions continued over the wording of the introductory section of the…
Almost two thirds of residents in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, prefer to drink tap water, according to a Norstat LT poll for the municipal water supplier, Vilniaus Vandenys, ELTA reports. The survey showed that 71% of Vilnius residents preferred tap water to bottled water. In a similar survey done in 2021, just 44% of Vilnius residents…
The invitation for Ukraine to join NATO must be "clear and irrevocable," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis stated, The Baltic Times reports. Speaking after a leadership meeting at the presidential palace to prepare for the NATO summit in Vilnius, Landsbergis reiterated Lithuania’s full support for Ukraine’s aspiration to join NATO. The meeting was also attended…
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda believes that NATO’s upcoming Vilnius summit will reach agreements that will "not disappoint" Ukraine in its fight against Russian invasion, LRT reports. Speaking in an interview with BNS, Nauseda said that the summit was unlikely to invite Ukraine to join the alliance after the war, however. Instead, NATO countries are expected…
Latvia’s President, Egils Levits, paid his last foreign visit to Lithuania, meeting with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, on 5 July 2023, LSM reports. Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics will take office as Latvia’s new president on 8 July 2023. Rinkevics will make his first official visit abroad as president to Estonia on 10 July 2023, ERR…
NATO has agreed on new regional defence plans for the Baltic States and Poland, but is still finalising the documents of the forthcoming summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, Lithuania’s Defence Minister, Arvydas Anusauskas, announced, BNS reports. He said that some countries are still trying to hold the documents until agreement is reached on completely…