Lithuanian foreign minister rejects predecessor’s criticism about Ukraine as “populism”

According to Linkevičius, such an initiative should be carefully prepared and launched by the aggrieved party. He also added that he had discussed such a possibility with his Ukrainian counterparts, stressing, however, that swift decisions were not possible.

“The former foreign minister should realize that agenda items must be prepared before the General Assembly. Unprepared items are not approved and in that case there’s more damage than good done. There are 193 countries at the General Assembly and the majority of them have to vote in favour of a proposal,” Linkevičius told BNS.

“And that should be done by the country which is a party to the case, in this instance Crimea is part of the Ukrainian territory. I have discussed this issue with the Ukrainian foreign minister. Theoretically, it’s possible but practically it cannot be done that fast. And such conclusions made and distributed show that people care more about populism and not real assistance, which I would really not want to believe,” the minister said.

Ažubalis party, the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, last month called on Lithuanian leaders to initiate a UN General Assembly resolution on turning to the ICH over the Crimea annexation.

Azubalis said on Wednesday that “the government rejected the call, and instead of making use of the unique chance to give a sense to its Security Council membership, Lithuania continues with its resonant “twitterish” foreign policy without tangible results.”

Lithuania held the presidency of the UN Security Council in May. The Baltic country is a non-permanent Security Council member in 2014-2015.