Security situation won't change, even if war stops – Lithuania's Landsbergis

  • 2022-04-07
  • LETA/BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS - The security situation would not change even if the war in Ukraine was stopped, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis says.

"The security situation would not change even if the war was actually stopped. There should be no doubt that this Russia, today's Russia, Putin's Russia, is a completely different country," Landsbergis told reporters ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

Therefore, he said, the Alliance must reflect the current situation, take action to defend its eastern flank and be ready to give military response to threats.

"NATO needs to reflect this reality, both politically and security-wise. We hope that this will be the case in our talks and discussions this evening. We want our allies and the NATO organization as a whole to step up their plans to really defend the eastern flank, to defend the Baltic states, to defend Lithuania. Not just to deter, not just to send a political message that something will happen in the event of an attack. Every one of us has to be there and we have to be ready to actually send a military response if something is attempted on NATO's borders", Landsbergis said.

He expressed hope that the changed approach to the defense of the Alliance's eastern flank would be reflected in the meeting documents.