EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Lithuania

Icelandic president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, Dalia Grybauskaite and Audronius Azubalis. Reykjavik, 25.08.2011. Photo: urm.lt

"These two decades were very tense and complicated for Lithuania. However, we constantly felt Iceland's support and your country's faith in our state helped us to implement incredible large-scale domestic reforms and to achieve full international recognition. Today we are happy that we can thank friendly Iceland and also to offer our assistance and support on its path to EU accession," Azubalis said. At the meeting, the minister suggested to Iceland to continue benefiting from Lithuania's experience of European integration and EU membership. The minister invited diplomats of Iceland to join the team of Lithuania's Presidency of the EU Council in 2013 and thus gain experience of holding the Presidency, writes LETA/ELTA.

As a member of the delegation, Azubalis is accompanying President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite, who is on her state visit to Iceland. The visit is dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations of Lithuania and Iceland.

The ministers also discussed Lithuania's Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), also challenges and perspectives of the Nordic-Baltic cooperation. The Minister invited Iceland's top officials to visit Vilnius in April 2012 and to take part in the high-level events that will be hosted by Lithuania's Chairmanship of the Nordic-Baltic Eight.

During the meeting, Azubalis acquainted Iceland's officials with the Lithuanian energy security centre and invited the people of this country to cooperate in enhancing NATO's competence in the field of energy security. The Ministers dedicated a lot of attention to examine opportunities for the advancement of bilateral relations between Iceland and Lithuania, and discussed perspectives of economic and cultural cooperation.

Iceland was the first foreign state to officially recognize the Independence of Lithuania on 11 February 1991. Lithuania and Iceland re-established their diplomatic relations on 26 August 1991.