“Lithuania’s priorities in defence cooperation with Italy remain unchanged. We appreciate Italy’s practical support to the security of our region. In full understating of the current security situation, we are grateful to Italy for its contribution to the Baltic security and the security of the entire eastern flank. We are doing everything possible to provide proper service conditions for the Allies,” underscored Minister Kasčiūnas.

Military personnel of Italy are serving in the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group in the Baltic region Italian ships patrol the Baltic Sea. Also, Italy has provided rotations to five NATO Air Policing Missions in the Baltic states flown from Šiauliai so far and plans to deploy the Italian detachment again for two consecutive rotations starting this year. The minister also pointed out that Lithuania understood the threat of irregular migration originating in the South and Mediterranean and said that expanding bilateral cooperation was of utmost importance in the present geopolitical and security context.  

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Another topic the ministers discussed was the upcoming NATO Summit in Washington. Besides executability of defence plans and increasing defence spending, decisions on practical implementation of the Rotational Air Defence Model is one of Lithuania’s key expectations at the Summit. The war in Ukraine has demonstrated that air defence remains among top priorities for defence of the NATO eastern border. Minister Kasčiūnas invited Italy to contribute to the implementation of the model by deploying its air defence capabilities in Lithuania. 

The minister also addressed assistance to Ukraine. Kasčiūnas underscored the importance of Ukraine’s victory against Russia and thanked Italy for the decision to join the Ukraine Demining Coalition that Lithuania led and encourage equipment, financial or training contributions. Italy has donated individual demining equipment to Ukraine so far, conducts staff officer and combat demining operator training courses, also, it has taken a decision to transfer one more mid-range air defence system.

“We have to fight the Russian disinformation campaigns more intensely to prevent it from discrediting the Western support to Ukraine. Only a strong and continued assistance to Ukraine until its victory can bring back stability and peace to Europe,” said Minister Kasčiūnas.   

The meeting also addressed the importance of cooperation with defence industry. Kasčiūnas underscored that Lithuania had adopted a new defence industry law to promote defence industry investment in Lithuania. Investment of the German Rheinmetall stands out as an excellent example of that. The minister invited Italy’s defence industrial giant Leonardo to avail of the favourable conditions in Lithuania, particularly in the area of high technology.