Lithuania, Kazakhstan to sign military cooperation agreement

Lithuania, Kazakhstan to sign military cooperation agreement

14.05.2008, 07.46

VILNIUS, May 14 (Itar-Tass) - Defence Ministers of Lithuania and Kazakhstan Juozas Olekas and Danial Akhmetov will sign in Astana on Wednesday an agreement on cooperation in the military sphere. Lithuania's delegation headed by Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas is in Kazakhstan on a visit.

The document creates the legal foundation for regular interstate cooperation in the military sphere – familiarisation visits, consultations, information exchange and training of personnel. The document is a model international agreement in the military sphere, the Defence Ministry specified. In accordance with such documents Lithuania conducts military cooperation with a number of post-Soviet countries.

In August Vilnius plans to accredit its military attache in Kazakhstan.

On Tuesday, Kirkilas said after his meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev that Lithuania called for enhancement of energy cooperation with Kazakhstan and development of bilateral trade in various spheres.

“We touched upon very important energy issues, because Lithuania is in need of alternative deliveries of gas and, may be, oil,” the Lithuanian prime minister said. In his words, this is connected with the shutdown of the Ignalina nuclear power plant.

“I have already said what problems our country will come to face with after the nuclear power plant’s shutdown,” he said, adding, “You know that we have already closed one power unit, and the second unit will be closed before the end of the next year.”

While joining the European Union, Lithuania promised to stop the nuclear power plant on December 31, 2009 on Brussels’ demand. The European Union considers the Ignalina nuclear power plant as unsafe.

Lithuania is going to construct a new plant instead of the Ignalina nuclear power plant. However, experts believe the new plant may be constructed not earlier than 2015.

The region will inevitably encounter energy shortage in the period between 2009 and 2015, if Ignalina nuclear power plan is stopped in 2009, experts believe.

Vilnius believes that Lithuania will be fully dependable on Russia’s energy supplies after the Ignalina NPP’s shutdown, because the country’s power grids are integrated only to the East.

Currently, Lithuania would like to receive a permission to extend the plant’s service life, while Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland are jointly building a new nuclear power plant.

While staying in Astana, Kirkilas discussed with Nazarbayev Kazakhstan’ s participation in the construction of a terminal for liquefied natural gas in Klaipeda, which is Lithuania’s third largest city and largest seaport.

Kirkilas spoke in favour of more intensive trade and economic cooperation between Lithuania and Kazakhstan.