Presidential adviser: Talks about worsening Lithuanian-Polish relations are highly suspicious

"All talks about damage to bilateral relations seem suspicious at least because the biggest damage to relations is perhaps done by the loud shouting about their worsening on every suitable and unsuitable occasion," Laurynas Jonavičius told the Lithuanian Radio's program "Between East and West" on Monday.

Asked about Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė's decision not to attend the Baltic leader's meeting on NATO issues, initiated by the Polish president, the adviser said that multinational security issues should not be hostage to specific bilateral issues.

"Issues that this meeting in Poland is being organized for have been discussed with both the Polish leader and the Latvian president during recent meetings. As we are aware of the general context, we wouldn’t want these multinational security aspects to become hostage to specific bilateral aspects and be related to solution of existing and alleged problems," Jonavičius told the Lithuanian Radio.

"We wouldn’t want multinational security questions – be it the air policing or issues related to NATO cooperation – to become hostage to specific bilateral issues," the presidential adviser said.

The Lithuanian President's Office said earlier that President Grybauskaitė had been informed about "statements by Polish diplomats that Poland might reconsider its position on the air policing mission, if ethnic minority problems were not solved."

Jonavičius did not elaborate on these issues on Monday but said that "any pressure – be it public or non-public – is an inappropriate instrument and therefore cannot be tolerated."

At the same time he added that bilateral relations are "not bad in general."

"Some people constantly want to see only bad aspects, see problems and drawbacks. But if we look at trade volumes, it is growing every year. The tourist flow from Lithuania to Poland and from Poland to Lithuania is growing. Poland is the third largest investor in Lithuania. Both countries are continuing pragmatic cooperation on energy projects," he said.

Asked to evaluate the existing bilateral relations, Jonavičius said: "Lithuanian-Polish relations are working relations."

Contrary to Grybauskaitė, the Latvian and Estonian presidents have accepted Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski's invitation to attend the meeting in Warsaw on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the upcoming NATO summit.