Report: SIB-Amsterdam visits Embassy of Lithuania

On 3 February DUNSA Amsterdam  visited the embassy of Lithuania in the Hague.Our visit began with an extensive explanation about the origin of most European languages and their interrelatedness. Because some evidence of an earlier held masterclass about this topic was still present in the room, the ambassador felt the urge to come up with a clarification.After some struggles with the beamer were resolved, the ambassador started his presentation about the strategic geographical position of the Kaliningrad area. As was clear from the beginning, Lithuania’s position within Europe and its bilateral relation with Russia would be the major points of discussion that day.A big proportion of the presentation was about the importance of the NATO. The Ambassador stressed that the NATO response force will not be enough to discourage Russia from intervening Lithuania. He tries to convince NATO to come up with a structural significant military deployment in Lithuania and other Baltic States. It was surprising that such a highly placed diplomat talked so openly and explicitly about very serious events.Furthermore Lithuania’s energy policy was discussed. Regarding this topic Lithuania’s goal is a transition towards non-Russian energy dependency. Because Lithuania’s average price of electricity is among the highest in the EU.Last but not least we had a little discussion about the Ukraine referendum that comes up in the near future. We agreed upon the treaty being beneficial for both parties, economically. The ambassador also stated that Ukraine needs a chance to show it’s able to come with some necessary reforms and that the association treaty can help to implement them.After all questions were resolved, we took a group picture together with the ambassador. The ambassador devoted an extensive amount of time to our visit, considering the fact we talked for more than two hours. Therefore we thanked him for an engaging and interesting afternoon