NATO PA Spring Session moved from Kyiv to Vilnius

  • 2022-03-16
  • BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS - The Board of the Seimas of Lithuania on Wednesday agreed to hold the Spring Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Vilnius in late May.

The session had been scheduled to take place in Kyiv but it will be impossible to hold it there due to Russia's ongoing invasion.

"Lithuania would become the centre of NATO's political life for these three days," said MP Audronius Azubalis, who presented the initiative at a meeting of the Board of the Seimas.

Lithuania would also benefit from the event by being able to talk about Russia and the strengthening of the Alliance's eastern flank, he added.

The NATO PA's Spring Session will take place on May 27-30 at the Seimas, with the event expected to attract around 500 foreign guests.

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is an inter-parliamentary organization where lawmakers from allied countries, together with their non-allied partners, discuss key political, security and defense issues in the Euro-Atlantic region. 

The last NATO PA Spring Session was held in Lithuania was in 2014 when Lithuania marked the 10th anniversary of its NATO membership. Before that, it was also organized in Lithuania in 2001.