
Latest Articles about Lithuania

Baltics Call for Unified European ‘Frontline’ Against Russian Disinformation
In light of the three Baltic States’ and other Central and Eastern European countries’ continued struggle against Russian disinformation, Latvian President Egils Levits emphasized that international law needs to be improved to promote cyber security and limit sovereign countries’ vulnerabilities to information warfare (President.lv, February... MORE

Russia Shifting Cargo Traffic Away From Baltic Ports to Its Own
Since 2014, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Moscow has worked hard to reduce cargo traffic via seaports in the three Baltic States—Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia—to punish them for what the Kremlin sees as their unfriendly policies. Moscow has been doing this by building up its own... MORE

Testing Belarus’s Character From Inside and Out
A battalion of United States military forces has arrived at a training area in Pabrade, Lithuania, 15 kilometers from the Belarusian border. The 1st Armored Battalion of the 9th Regiment brought 30 Abrams main battle tanks, 25 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles and 70 wheeled vehicles.... MORE

Latvia and the Baltic States Seek Closer Coordination on Relations with China
Introduction—Nordic and Baltic Governments Seek Common Positions for Relations with China On April 1, 2019, a meeting was held between the foreign ministers of the Baltic States and Nordic Countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland), or NB8; and of the Visegrád... MORE

Presidential Change in Lithuania: Implications for the Country’s Foreign Policy
Gitanas Nausėda was elected the next president of the Republic of Lithuania on May 26. The race was intense in both the first and second rounds. But in the end, Nausėda triumphed, crushing his opponent, Ingrida Šimonytė, 66 to 33 percent (Vrk.lt, June 3). Such... MORE

The “16+1” Becomes the “17+1”: Greece Joins China’s Dwindling Cooperation Framework in Central and Eastern Europe
Introduction: China’s (Junior) European Partners in the “16+1” On the heels of People’s Republic of China (PRC) President Xi Jinping’s busy bilateral tour in Western Europe in March, PRC Premier Li Keqiang started his own multilateral tour in Eastern Europe in April. Designed primarily to... MORE

Baltic Pipe to Cut Poland’s Gas Dependence on Russia
April 2019 saw a flurry of activity around the Baltic Pipe infrastructure project set to connect Poland and Denmark. The pipeline, which will carry around 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas from the North Sea to Poland and further to the Baltic States, is... MORE

Novatek May Be Carving Out a Bigger Role in Russian Energy Diplomacy
Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer, Novatek, which captured the largest share of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market in Europe in the first quarter of 2019, has sold 20 percent of its planned Arctic 2 LNG project to China (Novatek.ru, April 25). The stake went... MORE

Banking Corruption Scandals in the Baltics Spill Over Into Scandinavia
Financial corruption scandals are not a novel phenomenon in the Baltic States. Multiple Baltic banks have repeatedly been implicated in money laundering schemes involving politicians and businessmen from Russia and other former Soviet countries. But what is notable about the latest wave of revelations is... MORE

Beijing Reportedly Ready to Finance Helsinki-Tallinn Tunnel
China’s Touchstone Capital Partners is ready to invest up to 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion) in the construction of an undersea tunnel linking Finland and Estonia, according to Finnish backers of the project (Helsingin Sanomat, March 8). Such an injection of funds could mean that... MORE