Lithuanian president to meet with US president in Warsaw

VILNIUS - Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite will take part in a meeting between leaders of Central and East European nations and US President Donald Trump in Warsaw on Thursday.

Grybauskaite's office said in a press release on Tuesday that Trump's visit was regarded as an effort "to show special attention to the security of the Baltic and Eastern European countries and to reiterate the US commitment to NATO collective defense".

The meeting will be attended by the leaders of 12 countries grouped along the Adriatic, Baltic and Black seas.

The three Baltic presidents plan to meet with US Vice President Mike Pence in Tallinn in late July.

Trump sparked anxiety in Eastern European countries last year when he said during his presidential election campaign that he would seek to improve relations with Russia and called NATO "outdated". The US president did not publicly endorse NATO's collective defense clause during his recent visit to Brussels.

However, diplomats note that visits by the new administration's officials to the region have recently become particularly frequent. US Secretary of Defense James Mattis came to Lithuania in May and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan visited Estonia in April.