The talks, officially known as intergovernmental consultations, are being led by Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Lithuania’s Saulius Skvernelis.
According to an official announcement, one of the main topics of the talks is the situation in Belarus, where post-election protests have grown against longtime strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko and of which both Poland and Lithuania are neighbors.
During their talks in the Lithuanian capital on Thursday, more than 20 government ministers from the two countries are also expected to discuss issues such as the next EU budget, migration and ways of coordinating “policies and actions within the EU," Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński has told reporters.
The Polish prime minister said last year that Poland and Lithuania were “headed in the same direction” as they deepened political, economic and cultural ties.
Speaking after talks with his Lithuanian counterpart in Warsaw in September last year, Poland's Morawiecki said that the two countries were deepening their political, economic and cultural relationships while taking into account “historical and social sensitivities.”
Morawiecki thanked Skvernelis for his proposal of holding intergovernmental consultations in 2020, saying this could lead to bilateral “cooperation being even better so that we can jointly represent our positions in Europe.”
Morawiecki was also quoted as saying at the time that "in practical terms, Poland and Lithuania have very similar, if not nearly identical, positions” amid ongoing negotiations on the next long-term budget of the European Union of which they are both part.
Meanwhile, Lithuania’s Skvernelis told reporters that intergovernmental relations between Poland and Lithuania were "the best they have ever been," Poland's PAP news agency reported back then.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR, PAP