Prime Minister: Lithuania’s NATO membership is a tremendous achievement and a privilege to build prosperity on a foundation of freedom, peace, and security
Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė has sent a message of greetings to the people of Lithuania on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the country's NATO membership. It was on this very day, the 29th of March in the year 2004, that Lithuania proudly assumed its place as a full-fledged member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
‘Lithuania's 20th anniversary of NATO membership is a tremendous achievement and a privilege for our country to build prosperity on the foundation of freedom, peace, and security. It is only under a secure sky that democracy can thrive, civil society grow and prosper, and a nation share its individuality with the world. Today, we have all this, and much of our success is a credit to our membership in the strongest defence alliance, which has been pursued with purpose and perseverance by countless people, leaders and diplomats dedicated to the country.
This privilege, unfortunately absent in the besieged Ukraine defending itself, the free world, and its values, still doesn't turn security into a given, reminding us that it is we ourselves that bare the duty for a secure tomorrow. This responsibility falls on each of us as citizens and together as a society. Our Ukrainian brothers and sisters remind us every day of the strength that lies in unity and the will to defend ourselves. Let us build and nourish this strength, which, alongside NATO’s principle of unity - 'one for all, and all for one'- is the strongest, most unshakeable foundation of our security,’ said Prime Minister Šimonytė.