Snow Meeting discusses new threats and NATO summit

“A very important NATO summit will be held this year [in July] and, of course, we are hoping for a logical continuation of the Wales summit. We hope for decisions that will be of crucial importance not only for the Alliance but also for our region, as well as Lithuanian security. There are a lot of factors that are all intertwined – the relationship with Russia and Moscow’s actions in Ukraine and Syria,” Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius told Žinių radijas.

Linkevičius said that a key focus would be “also, hybrid threats, not only conventional – cyber, energy, information war. I think all of this will be discussed, the more so because the conversations will be informal, decisions are not expected but it would be good to check people’s position on it. Discussion are useful because there will be many decision makers among us. Generally, more options and ideas are generated after such meetings, even more so because this year will be quite tense.”

Considerable attention will be given to both conventional and hybrid threats by around 90 high-ranking NATO and EU officials, diplomats, international security policy experts from analytical and research centers who are attending the meeting.

It is expected that the full implementation of the NATO Readiness Action Plan will be announced at the NATO Summit on July 8-9 in Warsaw, according to Linkevičius.

“We’re talking about the fact that our security measures must be permanent and long-term, in order to integrate military capabilities, and ensure the physical presence of our allies in the region – not only soldiers, but also technical capabilities. NATO headquarters which are already operating in Lithuania, should develop improved operational capabilities. So it should be some kind of continuation of the work that has been started at the Welsh summit,” he said.

Žinių radijas