Lithuania pauses in relations with all neighbours?

Lithuania should not respond to a proposal of “re-opening” that comes from Warsaw, but maintain the pause in political relations with Poland.

And this is mainly because the President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė, felt offended during her recent visit to Warsaw when, after hours spent out in a cold, she was offered a tea only – ironizes in his comment the editor of the 15min.lt site and one of the leading columnists, Rimvydas Valatka. He also wonders whether the Lithuanian special services follow Polish diplomats in Lithuania by the Office of the President and “report the president with whom and what they drink”. In this way, Valatka referred to the recent meeting of President Grybauskaitė with heads of Lithuanian diplomatic missions abroad. Although the meeting was closed to the media, the editor of the site, having intimate relations with politicians and diplomats, do not hide that he knows the details both of the latest and previous meetings of the diplomatic corps with the president who, according to the Constitution, is the main decision maker in matters of foreign policy. Valatka calls the future foreign policy the “four pauses” policy – he says that the president instructed diplomats to maintain a pause in relations with the four neighbouring countries – Belarus, Russia, Latvia and Poland.

Valatka writes that, during last meeting, the president had spoken to diplomats not in a solemn tone, but calmly.

‘Not one and not three ambassadors, in different places, with the same words confirmed the policy of four pauses. The only difference is that, unlike during previous meetings, this year the president didn’t shout at Egidijus Meilūnas (former Ambassador of Lithuania in Poland – ed.) because of bad relations with Poland, but she spoke quietly, even in a calm voice’, writes Valatka.

He acknowledges that maybe Lithuania can afford the freezing of relations with Minsk and Moscow, at least because of the situation in Belarus or because relations with Moscow do not depend only on Vilnius, but turning back to the partners of NATO and the European Union is confusing and harmful to Lithuania.

‘At the time when Latvia hesitates whether to join the construction of nuclear power station, we, rather than convince them by all means that the power station will bring benefits (in which the Latvians doubt), we take a break in interstate relations. And if this wasn’t enough, we announce that Latvia is under the sole of the Kremlin and Gazprom’, notes Valatka about the relationship with Latvia.

He writes about the freezing of relations with Poland:

‘It’s not the first time when President Grybauskaitė speaks about the break in relations with Poland. However, it should be noted that she talked to the ambassadors about the freezing of relations with Poland at the same time, when Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius planned a meeting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas had just returned from Poland, where he persuaded the Poles to return to the construction of nuclear power station. And in general, the president requests a suspension of relations with Poland at the time when the ice started in Warsaw itself.’ Valatka reminds that the recent announcement made by Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Tomasz Nalecz, advisers to President Bronislaw Komorowski, which spoke about the need to normalize relations with Vilnius and that Poland is ready to start these new relations.

Valatka also writes ironically that president Grybauskaitė will never go to Warsaw anymore not only because “she was recently offered a tea only”, but also because she believes that the employees of Polish diplomatic missions coordinate their activities with workers of Russian institutions, organizing rallies in front of the Office of the President (this suggestion concerns the minority rallies against the new Law on Education, which took place in the square before the Office of the President – ed.), or even because the Poles sometimes all Lithuanians “peasants”.

‘Although our president doesn’t like the Poles calling us “peasants” (…), the 21 century Lithuanian farmers, who raise 80 centimes of grain per acre, certainly will not feel insulted by the term “peasant”. Only a yesterday villager, who cannot find himself a place to live in the city, may feel offended by the comparison to the peasant. The half-tatters. So maybe we should be the peasants firmly standing on the ground and exporting grain and cattle, rather than the newcomers to the city unable to find our place in it (…)’, writes the Lithuanian journalist.

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2012/07/25/%EF%BB%BFlitwa-pauzuje-w-relacjach-ze-wszystkimi-sasiadami/

Tłumaczenie Ewelina Zarembska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Ewelina Zarembska within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.