Afghanistan
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania strongly condemns the use of brutal force and arrests of peaceful protestors that violate human rights and breach the principle of the rule of law.
On 22 January, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis took part in a virtual meeting of the European Union’s foreign ministers with the United States climate envoy John Kerry. The meeting focused on reinventing the EU-U.S. relations on climate after the new U.S. administration announced that the country would re-enter the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
On 22 January, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius of Lithuania Landsbergis attended the United Nations Security Council high-level Arria-formula meeting on Media Freedom in Belarus. Lithuania's Foreign Minister called upon the Belarusian government to respect freedom of expression, and to end the arbitrary detention of journalists and all other media restrictions.
On 21 January, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis talked to the EU Ambassadors in Lithuania via virtual discussion and stressed that, in response to global challenges, the EU’s foreign policy needed to be value-based.
On 17 January, the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after flying to his home country from Germany.
On 20 and 22 January, the Permanent Representative of Lithuania, Ambassador Andrius Krivas took the floor at the 37th session of the Working Group of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to address the human rights situation in Australia and Austria.
In commemoration of the Year of the Vilna Gaon and of the History of the Jews of Lithuania, Lithuanians who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust were honored in the oldest Holocaust museum in the United States.
On 21 December, the Permanent Representative of Lithuania Ambassador Andrius Krivas sent a letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Diego García-Sayán regarding Russia's actions against Lithuanian justice officials in January 13 case and asked him to react in accordance with his mandate.
On 18 December, Lithuania took the floor in the Interactive Dialogue with the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ms. Ilze Brands Kehris on the human rights situation in Ukraine.
December 17, 2020
I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Moscow Mechanism invoking participating States: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, as well as the following countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.
On 16 December, the 4th Jurgis Baltrušaitis Jr. Award has been presented at the National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia. Anna Karamyan, a master degree student in architecture, has received the award for her work on the preservation and renovation of the monastery of the Mekhitarists in San Lazzaro degli Armeni island in Venice.
On December 14, Lithuanian Ambassador Inga Stanytė-Toločkienė met with Mr. Romanos Petrosyan, the new Minister of Environment of Armenia. The ongoing and planned bilateral projects in the sector of environment were discussed during the meeting. The Ambassador paid a great attention to the potential of cooperation in waste management, in particular to the possibility of transferring to Armenia the experience of Lithuanian deposit system.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania allocated EUR 100,000 in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The funds will be transferred to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).