Polish ambassador met with prime minister of Lithuania. Comments by J. Skolimowski

Polish ambassador in Vilnius whose term is ending soon describes the relations between neighboring countries and nations as very good. During the meeting with the prime minister A. Butkevicius, the ambassador stressed that the current center-left government thinks differently than the former center-right government.

„I appreciate very much the conversation with the prime minister. I had the pleasure of working with him since the beginning of my term in the office, that is for eight years. He was back then a communications minister in the government of prime minister Gediminas Kirkilas. Today, the two of us talked about a time when the state of Poland bought the Pac Palace from the ministry he was heading, it is the current residence of the Polish Embassy in Vilnius.” said Janusz Skolimowski to the zw.lt when asked about the course of the meeting.

„We very highly evaluated the economic cooperation between the two countries. In the last year we had high numbers of double-sided business trade – more than 3 billion euro. We emphasized better and better atmosphere around Polish investments in Lithuania, including Orlen Lietuva.” added the ambassador.

During the meeting, J. Skolimowski and A. Butkevicius discussed, among others, the construction of the connections Via Baltica and Rail Baltica. There was also talk about ‘a new opening’ in relations between Lithuania and Poland in 2013.

„The relations between two nations are very good, there aren’t any problems.” J. Skolimowski said to the Lithuanian journalists.

„I am a diplomat, an ambassador, my work with the former government was very difficult and in some respects very good, because the economic indexes are fantastic. There is no simple answer. I believe that certain prejudices, sometimes on both sides, have an effect on the future. In my opinion, the current government has a different attitude.” said the ambassador when asked what decided about the improvement of the relations over the last year.

„I started this job eight years ago when the relations were very good, and I finish it when the relations are very good” summed up J. Skolimowski.

Source: http://zw.lt/litwa/j-skolimowski-stosunki-miedzy-dwoma-narodami-sa-fantastyczne/

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