Lithuania's new Prime Minister, Mindaugas Sinkevičius, made regional security and Baltic cooperation his first priority in office – placing calls to his Estonian and Latvian counterparts and meeting Latvia's president in person, all within hours of his government being sworn in.
Sinkevičius' cabinet took its oaths in parliament, the Seimas, on Tuesday. The new government, backed by a 75-seat majority made up of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, the Democrats "For Lithuania", and the Lithuanian Farmers, Greens and Christian Families Union - held its first cabinet meeting the following day, Wednesday.
That same day, Sinkevičius' earliest phone calls went to Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal and Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs – a signal, officials say, of how central Baltic cooperation is to the new government's foreign policy.
He also met Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs in person to discuss regional security and bilateral cooperation in more depth.
According to the Lithuanian government, Sinkevičius told the Estonian and Latvian prime ministers that his cabinet would work to strengthen ties between the three Baltic states in the areas of regional security, resilience and economic prosperity.
