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Lithuania's Foreign Minister Landsbergis: "The war in Ukraine has a huge global impact"

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

2023.10.12

On 12 October, Lithuania's Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis is visiting Cairo, where he met with the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. At the meeting, Landsbergis said that Lithuania and Egypt, Europe and the Arab world were interested in maintaining a rules-based order that would help ensure peace and stability.

"Lithuania condemns the brutal Hamas attack on Israel. Lithuania shares grief with the victims' families and demands an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. "As Israel faces the unprecedented attacks, it has a legitimate right to defend itself within the limits of international humanitarian law, especially as regards the protection of civilians," Landsbergis said.

Lithuania's Foreign Minister insisted that in focusing on Israel and Palestine, it was crucial to remain committed to Ukraine, which continued to stand up against Russia's aggression.

"Although geographically the war rages on the European continent, it has a huge global impact. By destroying grain storage facilities, ports and dams, Russia is seeking to block the access of Ukrainian grain supplies to the world's most vulnerable countries. In my opinion, these deliberate actions amount to crimes against humanity. Russia also seeks to spread instability not only in Europe but also in Africa and some Arab countries through its mercenaries and violent propaganda," Landsbergis said.

The Foreign Minister once again stressed that Ukraine's victory in this war and its complete territorial integrity was the only way to restore stability and rules-based order in Europe and the world.

The head of Lithuania's diplomacy expressed hope that Egypt would consider opening an Egyptian embassy in Vilnius.

"I encouraged the Foreign Minister to consider opening the Egyptian embassy in Vilnius that would help to strengthen our relations further," Landsbergis said.

The meeting also focused on bilateral political and economic cooperation issues. The interlocutors exchanged views on cooperation in multilateral formats and discussed the global consequences of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, security issues of the Middle East region and other countries. Egypt is an important partner of Lithuania and the European Union in dealing with illegal migration, global food security policy, and ensuring the stability of international trade traffic in the Suez Canal.

Prospects for expanding cooperation in high-tech and communication, transport, energy, digitalisation and green technologies were also discussed.

It was the first working visit of Landsbergis to Egypt. The Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry visited Vilnius on 19 October 2019. Last year, the countries commemorated the 30th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.