On October 7 Vice Minister of National Defence Margiris Abukevičius had a meeting with Valeriu Mija, Secretary of State in the field of Defence Policy, National Defence Planning and Military Interoperability at the Ministry of Defence of Moldova and a discussion on prospects of bilateral Lithuanian-Moldovan defence cooperation.
Among other topics of the meeting were the political environment in Moldova and its cooperation with the European Union and NATO.
V. Mija visits Lithuania to attend the high-level seminar on the prospects of the European Union Eastern Partnership policy in security domain on October 7–8 which is co-organized by the European External Action Service (EEAS) Ministry of National Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania.
According to Vice Minister M. Abukevičius, Lithuania wants to make the Eastern Partnership members’ security stances and expectations heard by members of the European Union ahead of the December EU Summit.
The seminar is organised in four panel discussions among members of the academia, representatives of European institutions and officials from EaP and European foreign and defence ministries on trends and prospects of the Eastern Partnership security and defence policy.
Lithuania and Moldova began defence cooperation in 2004. Moldovan military officers have been invited to study at different short-term security and defence courses and seminars, English language and Junior Staff and Command Courses at the General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania since then. The Moldovan military personnel also study at paramedic and military instructor courses at the Lithuanian Armed Forces School.
