BAGIS DELIVERS A SPEECH IN LITHUENIA, ON EU ISSUES

Visiting Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, with the aim of lecturing at the Vilnius University and holding official talks; Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis met Lithuanian Deputy Parliament Speaker Ceslovas Vyautas Stankevcius.

At the same day, the President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite received Bagis and after that meeting Bagis lectured at the Vilnius University, the Institute of International Relations and Political Sciences.

Bagis briefed the participants on Turkey-EU relations and he said: "EU membership is not a temporary fancy for Turkey; it is a strategic objective of the Turkish foreign policy".

Stating that only by means of Turkey, the EU could bring its values to the regions, to which Turkey was struggling to bring peace and stability; Bagis said: "In other words, Turkey's membership will bring new political, economic and strategic opportunities to the EU. Moreover this will turn the EU into a global power."

Declaring that Turkey was acting as a mediator in the region to ensure peace and stability in the conflicts between Syria-Israel, Lebanon-Israel, Russia-Georgia, Bosnia-Serbia, Syria-Iraq, Azerbaijan- Armenia; Bagis emphasized that Turkey was among the countries contributing mostly to the European Security and Defence Policy, with its operations in Africa, Balkans and in the other regions.

Stating that 1.5 billion Muslims in the world were following Turkey's EU journey closely; Bagis said that after the EU Summit in 2004, there was an important increase in the number of media of the Muslim countries acrredited in Turkey and therefore, Turkey's EU membership would ease the integration of the Muslim world to the western democracy.

Within the framework of his official visits in Lithuania, Bagis met the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Audronius Azubalis and after that, Bagis and the accompanying delegation were received by the Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius.

Source: AA