Having restored its independence, Lithuania firmly decided to integrate with the West.
In 1992, a constitutional act on non-joining the post-Soviet Eastern Union was approved.
It stipulates the obligation “never and in any form to join any new political, military, economic or other state unions and commonwealths created on the basis of the former USSR”, and such activities are considered hostile to independence.
Archive photo of the Ministry of National Defense/Departure of Soviet troops in 1993. August.
In addition, it was established that there cannot be any military bases and military units of Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States or the states included in it on the territory of Lithuania.
In the first days of 1994, President Algirdas Brazauskas sent a letter to the then NATO Secretary General Manfred Wörner expressing Lithuania’s wish to become a NATO member.
Before that, all parliamentary parties signed an agreement on our country’s aspiration to join the Alliance.
“Scanpix” photo/Algirdas Brazauskas
A decade later – on March 29, 2004 – Lithuania became a full member of NATO.
A. Brazauskas, who was the prime minister at that time, while visiting America together with the heads of governments of six other countries in the region, handed the ratification letters of the Washington Treaty to the US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Considerations – also regarding neutrality
L. Linkevičius, former Lithuanian ambassador to NATO and long-time minister of foreign affairs, recalled that after the restoration of independence, there were all kinds of discussions about the path of our country.
There were fears and considerations that perhaps Lithuania should be a neutral state, because everyone had enough of wars, the memory of the Afghanistan war, where many Lithuanians were sent to fight against their will and did not return, was still very alive.
Lukas Balandios / 15min photo / Linas Linkevičius
The diplomat, now serving as ambassador to Sweden, also mentioned that, for example, when the first government was formed, there was not even a Ministry of National Defense. The functions were performed by the department, as if it were a less important institution.
