Regional security – common concern for Lithuania and Finland
President Dalia Grybauskaitė who is currently on an official visit in Finland met with President Sauli Niinistö to discuss the threats confronting the region, cooperation in the field of defense, the migration crisis, and other urgent bilateral and EU issues.
“The tense geopolitical reality and newly emerging challenges to the security of the region commit our countries to strengthen cooperation across all fields. Finland faces the same threats like Lithuania. Aggressive military force is demonstrated at our borders. The air space is being violated. Russian warships conduct dangerous maneuvers in the Baltic Sea. Therefore active cooperation between NATO and neutral Finland and Sweden is a necessity today,” the President said.
Lithuania and Finland are already exchanging information on air and sea surveillance. Finland takes part in NATO’s air, land and naval exercises. Both countries are strengthening and upgrading their defense capabilities. Lithuania has reinstated compulsory military service. Finland has mixed armed forces combining both professionals and conscripts. It yearly trains about 25 thousand conscripts. Finland’s defense budget equals 1.37 percent of GDP. This year, Lithuania has increased its defense spending to 1.5 percent of GDP.
The two presidents discussed the migration crisis and measures to overcome it as well as the need to strengthen the EU’s external borders. European countries are confronting refugee flows from both the South and the North. It is not excluded that a new migration route can open up across the Russian border. Finland had to deal with such a situation when refugees from Syria were systematically moved to its borders from Russia.
For the press release of Press Service of the President of the Republic of Lithuania please follow the link
Photos by Robertas Dačkus, official Office of the President of the Republic of Lithuania
