(dpa) - Lithuania sought security, justice and solidarity ahead of the EU-Russia partnership talks,
Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas said Monday.
"We are certain that Lithuania's concrete interests have to be taken into
consideration and they must be named," Vaitiekunas said.
"In our opinion, the solidarity of the EU partners during the negotiations
with Russia is an obligatory prerequisite to guarantee not just the Lithuanian
interests, but also common interests of the European Union."
Lithuanian diplomats urged the EU to show solidarity in the partnership talks
between Brussels and Moscow, which should be based on justice and security -
including energy security.
Lithuania has threatened to veto the opening of talks, set for Tuesday, in
protest at Russia's closure - allegedly for technical reasons - of the pipeline
feeding Russian oil to Lithuania's only oil refinery.
The Baltic nation claims that the pipeline closure from July 2006, only two
months after the Lithuanian government allowed the sale of the refinery to Poland's PKN Orlen company, was politically motivated.
By participating in the dialogue among EU partners over the new agreement with Russia, Lithuania is seeking to attain this solidarity, the foreign ministry said.
Vilnius wants to see a declaration on legal cooperation in the mandate as
well, urging Russia to help investigate who was behind sending Soviet tanks to Lithuania in 1991, killing 14 people and injuring 700 others.
Saying that Russia's actions in the so-called "frozen conflicts" are
connected with the security of Lithuania and, in turn, the EU, Vilnius proposed
adding a declaration regarding situation regarding Georgia and Moldova in its negotiating mandate.
To address those concerns, EU diplomats have agreed to include the term
"frozen conflicts" in the negotiating mandate and to append two
declarations to it - one on energy security and one on the pipeline issue.