President Gitanas Nausėda spoke on June 16
On June 16, President Gitanas Nausėda delivered his third State of the Nation address in parliament (Seimas). He began by listing immediate priorities required by the war on Ukraine – continuing efforts to support Ukraine, restraints on Russian agression and continued military and technological cooperation with the United States and implementing the Three Seas Initiative (the forum of twelve states surrounding the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black Sea). Today’s immediate task is to strengthen Lithuania’s military security, reinforce air defense capabilities and ensure that state institutions, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and ultimately all citizens are ready to fully support armed defense.
Advances in biotechnology, information technologies, lasers, and other sectors were highlighted among positive achievements. He described progress made over the past years in forming alliances, increasing border security and successful management of the coronavirus pandemic. Areas of concern were primarily inflation, tax reform, the judicial system, public transport, and access to health care. “The state must help business to find alternative markets, diversify exports and promote investments to make use of the Lithuanian economy’s full potential and competitiveness”, said Nauseda. “I cannot see rapid economic growth without smart economic diplomacy and state level efforts to open new markets for our businesses.”
The early launch of the Gas Interconnection Poland-Lithuania (GIPL) was also an important achievement, allowing Lithuania, Poland and other countries in the region to receive natural gas supplies using each other’s terminals and storage capacities. Lithuania needs to step up its power synchronization project and focus on renewables.
Referring to the diaspora, he called on the nation to support a referendum on preserving Lithuanian citizenship so that as many Lithuanians as possible could maintain a living bond with Lithuania.
The full text of the address is available online at https://www.lrp.lt/en.
