Romney would have been better for Lithuania - political expert

  • 2012-11-07

VILNIUS - It would have been better for Lithuania if Republican candidate Mitt Romney had won the US presidential election, but even Barack Obama's re-election will not bring any greater changes in Lithuanian-US relations, says political expert, Seimas Speaker Irena Degutiene's foreign policy advisor Laurynas Kasciunas.

"There will not be any significant changes. Well, I think Romney would have been better for Lithuania. Central and Eastern Europe in his foreign policy is seen as a separate tower to lean against to in the European security system () The Republicans understand the geopolitical issues of Central and Eastern Europe better and they show more sensitivity towards them. That is why Romney would have been slightly better for us," he said on Wednesday.

"There is not so much of Lithuania and Central Europe in Obama's geopolitical agenda, as compared to Romney. For Obama, Europe is a semi-completed security issue," the political expert said.

"US relations with Russia might change. It will be interesting to see if the reset policy gets continued. I think the vocabulary will be changed () the key problem now is the Middle East with Iran, Syria and others. Obama's geopolitical agenda, of course, will not have the cold war conceptions. We will not see such a holdup of Russia as some 10-15 years ago," Kasciunas said.