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Minister of National Defence Rasa Juknevičienė stated at the meeting with Defence Minister of the Kingdom of Sweden Karin Enström in Stockholm (Sweden) on May 4 that both Sweden and Lithuania had a shared vision – the countries located around the Baltic Sea are and must be responsible for peace and security in the region.

Both Ministers also stressed the necessity to maintain a strong transatlantic bond and firm commitments to the NATO’s collective defence in the region.
 
“Lithuania’s NATO membership is becoming more and more functional and deep. We have quite a number of joint exercises and training events in the region”, R.Juknevičienė said.
 
“Sweden’s abandonment of its neutrality policy and declaration of solidarity is extremely important to us. We have to respond to arising challenges together. We will not remain passive if an adversity hits our neighbouring states and expect the same from them,” said Defence Minister of Sweden and added that Sweden’s interest is to be a reliable partner.
 
Furthermore, Ministers expressed their delight over the increasingly stronger cooperation between Nordic and Baltic countries and discussed Lithuania’s chances to join the EU Nordic Battle Group in 2015. R. Juknevičienė invited Sweden’s forces to attend exercise Amber Hope in 2014 to enhance interoperability between Lithuania’s and Sweden’s armed forces.
 
Defence Minister of Sweden also expressed appreciation of Lithuania’s efforts to retain attention of the European Union to the Eastern neighborhood policy by setting it as one of Lithuania’s EU Presidency in 2013 priorities.
 
“It is crucial to support democratic efforts in Ukraine and Belarus as well as enhance cooperation with Georgia that seeks membership in the Alliance”, said Lithuanian Minister of National Defence. According to her, appropriate attention should be paid to Moldova making efforts to take the democratic road of freedom as well. Joint Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian Brigade LITPOLUKRBRIG was named as a project of concrete cooperation between the EU and Eastern.
 
The meeting Ministers also addressed security situation in the region. According to R. Juknevičienė, the military reform is ongoing in Russia, military forces of the country are being modernized and militarization of the Kaliningrad Oblast is continued.
 
NATO operation in Afghanistan was also touched upon. K. Enström stated that Sweden strengthens capabilities of civilian assistance to Afghanistan and searches for the best ways for the Northern countries to contribute to the transfer of responsibility to local security forces process.
 
R. Juknevičienė took the opportunity to invite Sweden to transport military cargo from and to Afghanistan via Lithuania.
 
Other topics were also discussed, such as energy security points, and the upcoming NATO Summit in Chicago.