NATO Secretary General visits Lithuania and participates at Informal Meeting of EU Ministers
The NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is visiting Vilnius in the framework of the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU and preparations of the European Council on Security and Defence in December. During meetings with President Dalia Grybauskaité, the Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament Vydas Gedvilas and other senior parliamentarians, the Secretary General commended Lithuania’s commitment to reinforcing cooperation between NATO and the European Union.
They also discussed NATO's mission in Afghanistan, relations with Eastern partners, including Russia, energy security, and developments in the wider Middle East. The Secretary General praised the agreement among all parliamentary parties to raise the defence spending to 2 percent of GDP in the long term, and highlighted that this should remain a key priority.
The Secretary General is also taking part in the informal meeting of Ministers of Defence of the European Union, which aims to prepare the December European Council. He stressed that cooperation, rather than duplication, between NATO and the EU is more important than ever, as the two organisations have 22 members in common, and only one set of forces and tax-payers.