Lithuania in the news
30th April, 2006
Vilnius Again Hosts Major International Conference
Modern Vilnius at night. On the left is the Reval Hotel Lietuva, where the
Heads of State Summit will be held on May 4.  Photo courtesy of Tourism
Division of Vilnius City Municipal Government
The Vilnius Conference 2006 "Common Vision for Common Neighbourhood", under the patronage of the President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus and the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski, will be held in Vilnius, May 3rd-5th, 2006. The Heads of State Summit will draw delegates from 25 countries and will be covered by more than 200 journalists. The Conference will aim in particular to foster cooperation between the peoples of the Baltic Sea and Black Sea regions.
Conference Logo shows stylized
silhouettes of two people holding
hands - light blue for Baltic Sea
states and navy blue for countries
of the Black Sea region
In his welcoming words President Adamkus said: "Today the time is ripe to reach an agreement over the common vision of political and economic development in Europe’s East... Never before have we had such opportunities for joint action, reforms and development of democracy in Europe and its neighbourhood."
The USA will be represnted by Vice-President Dick Cheney and the European Union by EU’s foreign affairs rerpresentative Javier Solana. Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko, hero of the "Orange revolution", made a special point of announcing that he will certainly will attend the conference. Other Heads of State attending will be the Presidents of Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Georgia, Rumania and Bulgaria, with high level ministers representing Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
This conference represents a fitting recognition of the successes of Lithuania’s regional diplomacy and in a sense is a continuation of the the landmark 1997 Vilnius Conference, at which the leaders of a dozen Central and Eastern European countries laid down a framework for regional stability and cooperation and gave birth to the so-called Vilnius Spirit for good neighbourly relations. This high-level conference will be complemented by a Youth Forum, NGO’s discussions and an Intellectuals’ Forum, the complete set of events extending over a week. The timing of these events happily coincides with the second annivesary of Lithuania’s accession to the European Union, which followed shortly upon Lithuania’s admission to NATO.

Sources: www.delfi.lt 28/4/06    www.vilniusconference2006.lt