Visits

Working visit by President Dalia Grybauskaitė to the United Nations in New York, 22-26 September 2009

President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė attended the 64th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and made a speech at the general debates on the topic "Effective Responses to Global Crises: Strengthening Multilateralism and Dialogue among Civilisations for International Peace, Security and Development".

The President underlined that although the international community was facing new challenges, the founding principles of the United Nations remained the same as six decades ago: joint security, prosperity, protection of human rights.

According to the President, all members of the United Nations, big and small, may and must contribute to the solution of global issues. In the President's view, small countries could play an active role in addressing global issues, particularly through regional organisations.

"The global financial and economic crisis is not the only problem today. Terrorism, proliferation of weapons, energy challenges, climate change, and many other issues are to be met in order to make UN goals a reality. Complex challenges require comprehensive responses. It is obvious we cannot afford individualistic and egoistic actions," President Grybauskaitė said.

According to the President, in an economic-financial downturn there is a temptation for each country to re-enter the for-itself mode, ignore international commitments and return to protectionism. But, as the President said, protectionism and isolationism never worked and will never work and only resolute common action can help to overcome difficulties and cope with new challenges.

The President called on the United Nations to strengthen societies that share the values of Humanity and Tolerance. "It is our responsibility to make sure that such phenomena as anti-Semitism, xenophobia and racism are thrown out of our lives. There can be no excuses for not bearing this responsibility. Small and big countries have equal duties not only towards their own citizens but also towards global society."

The President urged that countries, with all due regard for their domestic concerns and needs of national tax payers, need to respect their common responsibility and international commitments.

Posing a question as to what particular steps should be made, President Grybauskaitė underlined the importance of UN peace missions and assured that despite the current economic limitations, Lithuania was committed to its obligations by contributing to peace-keeping missions and operations and ensuring global security and stability by continued participation in the EU missions in Kosovo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Afghanistan. The President stressed the need to seek international consensus to strengthen the policy against non-proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, in particular the need to find ways to develop civil nuclear power but not nuclear weapons.

Lithuania's President urged regional organisations to assume greater global responsibility. The Head of State underlined that aware of being a small state Lithuania was committed to promoting UN values, particularly during presidencies of regional and global organisations. This year Lithuania holds Presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States and Presidency of the Community of Democracies, to be followed by the Chairmanship in the OSCE in 2011. Lithuanian representative will then assume the yearly Presidency of the UN General Assembly on September 2012, and Presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2013.

"Small or less developed states cannot avoid global responsibility anymore and all of us are responsible for our common present and future. Let us all recognise, from now on - in each of our capitals - that the global interest is our national interest and global responsibility is our national responsibility," President Dalia Grybauskaitė invited, concluding her address at the general debates of the UN General Assembly.

As part of her working visit at the United Nations, President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė also met with the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, the President of Serbia Boris Tadic, and the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili.

An hour-long meeting with Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko focused on bilateral relations between the two states and the progress of Ukraine's euro-atlantic integration.

Speaking about bilateral relations, Lithuania's President underlined that Ukraine's plans to levy duties on certain imports from the European Union run counter to the interests of not only Lithuania but also of other EU Member States as well as to the principles of the World Trade Organisation of which Ukraine is a member. This policy, according to President Grybauskaitė, aggravates Ukraine's prospects for a deep free trade agreement with the EU. Ukraine's President Yushchenko assured that duties had already been withdrawn and new duties would not be imposed.

Ukraine's President assured Lithuania's President who underlined the importance of cooperation in the electricity supply that Ukraine would be able to supply the deficient quantity of electricity via Belarus after the closure of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. According to President Yushchenko, Ukraine is prepared to sign contracts concerning electricity quantities.

President Grybauskaitė underlined Lithuania was supporting Ukraine's euro-atlantic integration aspirations, but noted that Ukraine had to do homework given both by the EU and NATO and to enhance its cooperation with these organisations. One of the key tasks, according to President Grybauskaitė, is to secure support from the Ukrainian people, whereas Lithuania is ready to share experience, particularly through the EU Eastern Partnership Programme, with Ukrainian specialists in developing cooperation projects, etc. President Grybauskaitė thanked Ukraine's President for inviting her to visit Ukraine.

In the meeting with the President of Serbia Boris Tadic, President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė underlined, when commenting on Serbia's request for support in making agreements with the European Union come into force, that Lithuania was upholding the EU stance to make Serbia's further euro-integration conditional on its cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in extraditing persons charged with war crimes.

The Head of State also stressed the importance of developing economic relations with the EU Member States. President Grybauskaitė said to her Serbian counterpart that Lithuania was expecting Serbia to create more favourable conditions for Lithuanian investors already running business in Serbia and currently facing difficulties there.

In the meeting with the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili who is also attending the United Nations General Assembly session in New York, President Dalia Grybauskaitė discussed with her Georgian counterpart Georgia's cooperation with Lithuania in the context of integration to the European Union, and the relations between Georgia and Russia.

The President of Lithuania underlined that the EU was currently preparing to start negotiations for Association Agreements with South Caucasian countries, including for deep free trade agreements with the EU. According to President Grybauskaitė, Georgia faces a difficult task of doing its homework, particularly of setting up an institutional framework for coordinating negotiations with the EU, carrying out urgent legislative reforms, and enhancing administrative capacities of the country. The President said she believed the EU Eastern Partnership Programme might become an efficient instrument for Georgia in achieving the goals sought.

President Saakashvili thanked Lithuania for support in developing democracy: over the previous and the current years Georgia has implemented or is still implementing over one and a half million litas worth of projects in the field of the rights of the child, regional cooperation, health care, and building democratic society.

Before finishing the visit in New York, President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė attended a meeting of women world leaders. The meeting brought together not only women presidents but also women prime ministers and foreign affairs ministers from different states of the world. For the Lithuanian President, this was the first meeting of this kind, organised and hosted by the U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

"I was invited to participate actively in the work of women world leaders initiative not only to defend women's rights but also to promote their active participation in policymaking by shaping global opinions on a wide range of issues," Dalia Grybauskaitė said.

This forum of women world leaders working to protect women's rights was founded a decade ago by Madeleine Albright, the first women to become the U.S. Secretary of State.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė also attended a meeting hosted by the President of Liberia Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and the President of Finland Tarja Halonen on Peace and Security through Women's Leadership. In the discussion held in the framework of general debates of the United Nations General Assembly, women world leaders discussed the most efficient ways of implementing the UN resolution adopted nearly a decade ago to protect women's rights and condemn violence against women, and agreed on the need to promote women's role in addressing the most painful global problems.

In her address at the discussion on peace and security through women's leadership, President of the Republic of Lithuania underlined the importance of world women's role and responsibility towards countries affected by downturns, conflicts and turmoil.

"Not all countries today can afford to contribute to assistance efforts or post-conflict peace building at equal levels. Only all together we will be able to communicate a strong message to those who abuse democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law. Moreover, sometimes respect for the rule of law is not sufficient since the law itself can come into contradiction with the universally agreed principles of humanism," President Grybauskaitė said.

The President assured that Lithuania would contribute to the promotion of women's leadership in the world. This issue will be on the agenda of the Community of Democracies, the Presidency of which Lithuania currently holds. Moreover, according to the President, an important role in protecting women's rights and promoting women's leadership will be played by the European Institute for Gender Equality, an official institution of the EU based in Vilnius that starts its activities next year.