On March 15 Vice Minister of National Defence Vilius Semeška met with Minister for the Armed Forces of France Florence Parly while on visit to Paris. The Lithuanian and French counterparts discussed opportunities for Lithuania to take part in French defence industry programmes and acquire French weaponry.
“France has a particularly developed defence industry, therefore we would like to joint some of the weaponry development and manufacturing programs and to procure cutting-edge systems. Defence Minister Florence Parly and I have also discussed the prospects for deploying indirect fire capabilities of the French Armed Forces to Lithuania in the nearest while,” said V. Semeška.
Assistance to Ukraine was also discussed at the meeting: Vice Minister V. Semeška underscored that the assistance had to continuous and stepped up, especially in weaponry and ammunition.
While in France, Vice Minister of National Defence also discussed procurements and capability-building of the Lithuanian Armed Forces with top officials of the Directorate-General.
France is an important ally of Lithuania in security and defence. French air capabilities have been guarding the Baltic skies by conducting the NATO Air Policing Mission for eight times to date, French troops are actively deployed to the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Groups and military training events in Lithuania and Estonia.
Photo: courtesy of the Ministry for the Armed Forces of France.
