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The President in the Hague: It's time to admit that the NATO-Russia Founding Act has failed

President of the Republic of Lithuania

June 27, 2023

Addressing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the leaders of Poland, Romania, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, and Albania in the Hague, President Gitanas Nausėda called for acknowledging that the NATO-Russia Founding Act signed in 1997 has failed.

"With Russia deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, we must finally admit and state the obvious: the NATO-Russia Founding Act has failed," the President said at a dinner hosted by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Together with the NATO Secretary General, the President outlined the key agenda of the NATO Summit to be held in Vilnius on July 11-12.

Gitanas Nausėda underscored the importance of strengthening deterrence and defense and called for taking all the necessary steps in Vilnius to fully implement the decisions of the NATO Madrid Summit on forward defense. Most important, according to the President, are the approval of new regional defense plans, the reinforcement of air defense systems on the eastern flank of the Alliance and the enhancement of forward defense capabilities.

"In the year since the Madrid Summit, the security situation on NATO's eastern flank has deteriorated. We face a growing threat and must respond adequately. Deterrence and forward defense are today's top priority," the President said.

The war in Ukraine has been ongoing for almost 500 days and shows no signs of ending soon, the President said, which is why further arms deliveries to Ukraine are necessary.

"In Vilnius, we need to make it clear that Ukraine is part of the transatlantic security architecture, that it will become a member of the Alliance as soon as possible and to agree on its pathway to membership. We cannot link this path to the end of the war because Russia will do everything to make sure that this war, which claims many lives every day and devastates the country, will never end," the President said at the meeting in the Hague.