Grybauskaite on relationship with Poles: sometimes it is better to take a pause

VILNIUS - Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite says that she has been always trying to represent the interests of Lithuania and its people in the country's foreign policy. What comes to relationship with Poland, she underlines that sometimes it is better to take a pause in certain relationships instead of trying to fix what is unfixable at the moment.

In an interview to the Lithuanian weekly Veidas, Grybauskaite said that foreign policy is very much dependent on both domestic needs and objective external geopolitical changes.

"Over the last 3 years, we have seen many changes in the views of many heads of neighboring states, the geopolitical attitude has changed a lot as well. I think that it is impossible to expect an easy neighborhood in the nearest future. My aim has always been to have a constructive dialogue with our neighbors, but that dialogue must be mutually beneficial and constructive, while preserving the values, dignity and self-esteem of the countries. If that is too difficult to do at the moment, then probably it would be better to take a pause. I would like to emphasize that I am talking about a pause rather than a conflict," she said, referring to her foreign policy goals for 2012 of the following year.

In response to the comment by the weekly Veidas that Lithuania's relationships with Poles and some other neighbors have been deteriorating the last couple of years and political scientists and historians have been criticizing the president for not having a clear direction in her foreign policy, Grybauskaite said that her direction has always been clear-cut, that is, to protect the interests of the nation of the state.