Netanyahu first Israeli PM to visit Lithuania; Meetings to center on strengthening relations between Israel with Baltic states; Netanyahu: Visit reflects Israel’s growing stature around the world.
Prime Minister Netanyahu left for Lithuania on Thursday to participate in the Baltic states summit and hold meetings with regional heads of state. He again will make history, this time as the first Israeli prime minister to visit Lithuania and to participate in the summit.
Netanyahu will hold meetings with Lithuania’s Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis and President Dalia Grybauskaite, Lativian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis and Prime Minister Juri Ratas of Estonia, meetings to be centered on “tightening economic and diplomatic ties”. He stated at the airport before leaving “I have been invited to the Baltic states summit. This is the first time that a Prime Minister of Israel will be visiting Lithuania and has been invited to this summit. This reflects Israel’s growing stature around the world.”
Speaking to the press, the prime minister reported one of his goals as “balancing the not always friendly EU approach toward the State of Israel, in order to achieve an approach that is more fair and genuine to the State of Israel.”
He will also visit Jewish historical sites, to “recall the splendid Jewish community that was there,” Netanyahu reporting the trip as having a “personal aspect” as his grandparents’ families were from Lithuania. Netanyahu will visit the Vilna Choral Synagogue and attend a memorial ceremony at the Ponary memorial site to commemorate the victims of the massacre. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister and a Holocaust survivor, Fania Brancovskaja, will participate in the ceremony.
He will be in Lithuania until Sunday.
Amir will give a LIVE Middle East Current Events Update on Saturday, August 25, 2018 at 9:00 pm (Israel time). He will talk about President Trump’s announcement on the peace plan, regional developments and much more. The update will be added to Youtube following.
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