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Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis thanked the U.S. Senators for supporting Lithuania’s aspirations at the NATO Summit in Chicago, the Alliance’s open door policy and such countries as Georgia, which are actively seeking NATO membership.  On May 20 in Chicago, Ažubalis met with one of the United States Senate majority leaders, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, who is of Lithuanian descent, and with a most active advocate of NATO’s enlargement, member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Representative Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. Durbin said that the decision to continue the NATO air policing mission in the Baltic States, which was welcomed at the NATO Summit in Chicago, was important both to the Baltic States and to Lithuanians living in Chicago, who had struggled for many years for the restoration of Lithuania’s independence.

The Senators thanked Lithuania for its active foreign policy with regard to NATO’s Eastern neighbours, support for democratic forces in Belarus and Russia, the transformation in Ukraine. According to the U.S. representatives, this is important for the entire Alliance.

Durbin also was concerned about the rapid militarization of the Kaliningrad region, nuclear projects in the Kaliningrad region and in Belarus that were funded by Russia.

Ažubalis invited the Senator once again to visit Jurbarkas, his historical homeland and native land.

Durbin took interest in Lithuania’s forthcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2013 and expressed hope that the presidency would succeed to strengthen cooperation between the entire EU and U.S.