Lietuva in brief - 2010-09-01

Sep 01, 2010

Lithuanian Defense Minister Rasa Jukneviciene has expressed hope that Belarus will become a member of NATO one day, the European Radio for Belarus reports. “We see that today there is a very strong defense integration between Belarus and Russia. We would like Belarus to turn more to the West and NATO,” Jukneviciene said. “If more Belarusian servicemen know that Lithuania is not an enemy, and that they no longer need to hold such large-scale Russian-Belarusian maneuvers as ‘West-2009’ against Lithuania and Poland, everything would only get better. There is little cooperation in the military field, and we need to improve that,” said Jukneviciene. Belarusian Defense Minister Yury Zhadobin will visit Vilnius in October. Lithuanian politicians hope that the meeting will promote cooperation in the defense area.

Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius says that the public has the right to have access to 12 classified documents of the State Security Department (VSD), which have been finally submitted to the Seimas’ Committee on National Security and Defense (NSGK), reports ELTA. The prime minister believes that the documents do not contain such information which would reveal the methods of operation or sources of intelligence activities, thus the disclosure would not harm the subjects of the intelligence activities. President Dalia Grybauskaite doubts whether it is purposeful to launch an investigation based on the said intelligence documents. Conservative MP Kestutis Masiulis has said that he will propose continuing a parliamentary investigation into political corruption and illegal occupation of the state, which was not terminated by the Seimas of the previous term of office. After viewing the documents, MP Valentinas Mazuronis (Order and Justice), has demanded setting up a group of non-affiliated prosecutors to launch a pre-trial investigation into an alleged attempt to occupy the state of Lithuania in 2000-2010.

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