The President of the Government of Spain conveys his support to the Lithuanian President ahead of the NATO Summit in Vilnius

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has held a meeting at Moncloa Palace with the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, at the latter's initiative.

On 11 and 12 July, Vilnius will host the NATO Summit. The Lithuanian city will thereby take the baton from Spain, which hosted the meeting in Madrid in June 2022. In this context, and as the previous host of this high-level event, Pedro Sánchez has conveyed to Gitanas Nausėda his support and the two leaders have exchanged views on the priorities of the summit. In a context marked by Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the president stressed the defence of the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the two leaders had the opportunity to discuss the current situation in the country, reiterating their support for Ukraine vis-à-vis Putin's unjust and unjustified aggression.

The meeting was also a useful opportunity to address the European issues currently at the centre of the debate, just weeks before Spain takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. In this context, President Sánchez and his Lithuanian counterpart discussed the general lines on which Spain will focus its presidency, including among others, economic governance, competitiveness, reform of the electricity market and the Migration and Asylum Pact.

The president also took the opportunity to share with his counterpart the importance of pursuing open strategic autonomy, pointing out that this will be a priority issue during the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, and will have a roadmap based on four areas: energy, health, the primary sector and new technologies.

Pedro Sánchez and Gitanas Nausėda also agreed on the relevance of the upcoming EU-CELAC Summit, which will be held in Brussels during the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU for the first time since 2015, and will be a historic opportunity to continue fostering and perfecting relations between the EU and Latin America.

Non official translation