President Litouwen ontmoet Obama (en)

Monday, July 29, Vilnius - President Dalia Grybauskaitė i together with President Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia and President Andris Bērziņš of Latvia will meet with the President of the United States, Barack Obama i. The meeting will be held at the invitation of President Barack Obama on 30 August in Washington.

This year we mark 15 years since the signing of the U.S.-Baltic Charter of Partnership. This charter has ensured the United States' support to the aspirations and efforts of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to join NATO.

During their meeting, the Presidents of the Baltic States and the United States will discuss regional military, energy and cyber security issues. Special focus will be on the aspects of economic cooperation and negotiations with the European Union for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Discussion topics will also include cooperation in NATO.

"The United States understands the challenges faced by Lithuania and the Baltic countries and cooperation with the U.S. over the past few years has been more intense than ever before. America is a major partner which backed the extension of the NATO air policing mission in the Baltics for indefinite period, and this year will see the largest military exercise to date conducted in the region under the Alliance's contingency plans," the President said.

Dalia Grybauskaitė underlines that the United States is an important partner of Lithuania in energy security. Lithuania is particularly interested in facilitating shale gas exports from the U.S. to NATO member countries as it would ensure diversified energy supplies and competitive prices to Lithuanian people. At the present moment, U.S. gas is almost four times cheaper than the price paid by Lithuania. Lithuania-U.S. cooperation has also been intensive in setting up the Nuclear Security Centre of Excellence.

According to President Dalia Grybauskaitė, the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union has an opportunity to contribute to advancing the EU-U.S. relations. During Lithuania's Presidency the first round of talks was held between the United States and the European Union on the transatlantic trade agreement. There are high expectations that the second negotiation meeting will take place until expiry of Lithuania's Presidency.

The President noted that negotiations on the transatlantic trade agreement are among key priorities on the Lithuanian Presidency agenda. It will help ensure a smoother collaboration of the two strategic partners, contributing specifically to economic growth on both sides of the Atlantic. The transatlantic trade partnership will help the world's two largest economic blocks to meet global challenges, the President said.