“Horrendous crime in Paris has shown that the fight against terrorism will again be high on the current agenda of Europe over a period of time. The terrorist’s goal is to provoke fear and distrust, thus close solidarity and protection of common values shall become a strong response of Europe to the latest events,” stressed President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis after the meeting.
High officials discussed the security situation in the Baltic States, by stating that the level of terrorism threat in our region was low, but Europe should not allow that the terrorist risks increased alongside with the flow of asylum seekers. Therefore, for making any further decisions on the placement of asylum seekers in Europe, already adopted decisions on the level of the European Union (EU) should be implemented at first, especially those pertaining to strengthening of the borders and secure registration of refugees in the first country of entry or transit.
President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis pointed out that strengthening of the external borders was too slow at present. In his turn, President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves noted that Europe faced the refugee issue not for the first time, so focusing on solutions was very important by not perceiving the flow of asylum-seekers as the “end of the world”.
President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite also stressed that fulfilment of all the previous commitments to strengthen safety was essential in Europe first, including the FRONTEX coordinated border guarding operations. All the three Presidents found that security issues acquired global significance and the Baltic States as the whole Europe should focus more on cooperation so that concerted action followed in the event of any threat.
The Presidents of the Baltic States emphasized that attention should not be diverted from Ukraine, where the situation had not improved, in a critical situation in the EU and at its southern borders: “Increasing collisions are observed again, and the full execution of the Minsk agreement is not expected in the near future. Our common task is to retain the conflict in Ukraine in the spotlight of the EU as much as possible, while a complete settlement of the situation is found,” said Raimonds Vējonis. President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves reminded that maintaining the common position was essential in order to avoid disruption of the existing security architecture in Europe.
During the meeting in Palanga, the leaders of the Baltic States also focused on the issue of cooperation in strengthening the Eastern border, energy cooperation, joint procurements in the area of defence, and cooperation in the field of secure electronic services.
The Presidents of the Baltic States meet once a year n such a format. The next meeting is planned at the end of the next year in Latvia, when Latvia will be presiding over the Baltic Council of Ministers (BCM).
After the meeting in Palanga on November 20, three leaders of the Baltic States also participated in the opening of project “Mission Siberia” aimed at promotion of youth patriotism and understanding of the country's history. “Mission Siberia” is a civic and patriotic education project among young people, when an expedition of young people go to clean up the graves of Lithuanian deportees and political prisoners in Siberia and to meet with the Lithuanians still residing there. In 2015, when the 10th anniversary of the project and the 25th anniversary of the Baltic independence were marked, a girl from Latvia took part in the expedition for the first time.