Lietuva in brief - 2010-09-08

NATO is set to approve specific defense plans for the Baltic States by the end of this year, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said on Sept. 6, reports AFP. “Discussions started last fall are proceeding and it finally will be the case that the Baltic region, after six years of membership, will really have defense plans,” Grybauskaite told reporters. NATO is due to hold a summit in the Portuguese capital Lisbon in November. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have testy relations with their resurgent former master, Russia, which only withdrew its troops from their territories in 1994. They have nonetheless repeatedly stressed that improving ties with Russia is their preference. “I don’t think a Cold War situation is profitable to anybody. It’s not because we’re afraid of anybody. We’d like the same treatment, the same application of Article Five, and the same security as all member states have,” said Grybauskaite. 

The exhibition ‘And Reticence As Well,’ by artist Algis Griskevicius, opened on Sept. 3 in Borati Gallery in Klaipeda, reports The Lithuanian Tribune. Griskevicius is a famous contemporary artist, working in various areas. “The works of artist Griskevicius fit into the traditional boundaries of painting, yet express the spiritual condition of man. The past, accepted values and connection of current anxiety,” says art critic Aldona Dapkute. The artist was born in 1954 in Vilnius. He worked as artist’s assistant in the Opera and Ballet House from 1976 to 1980, then studied at Vilnius Art Institute (now Academy) from 1980 to 1985. At the same time he worked as senior artist – scene painter in the Vilnius Youth Theater, from 1980 to 1990. He entered the Lithuanian Artists Association in 1988, and has arranged 47 personal exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad.