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- Mr. Ambassador, you have recently taken up your duties and already handed over your credentials to the Armenian President. What tasks do you consider priority ones for you?

- First of all, I should say I have felt the warm attitude of the people from my very first day in Armenia and of course, I am very pleased.

Before coming to Yerevan, I met with Armenia's Ambassador Ara Ayvazyan in Vilnius and representatives of business circles - improvement of economic relations between our countries will be one of the main areas of my work.

From July 1, Lithuania will take the Presidency of the European Union. We face serious issues and we will continue the work realized by Ireland.

EU’s Eastern Partnership will be among our top priorities. We have always actively supported and undoubtedly will keep supporting this project in the future as well. The Lithuanian President stressed speaking at the parliament recently that it's necessary for our common future.

Energy security is one of the key issues for Lithuania and the whole EU. That's why the International Conference on Energy Security due to be held in Vilnius in November along with the Eastern Partnership Summit is also one of the priorities of Lithuania's chairmanship in the EU.

Also in November the Lithuanian capital will host Information and Communication Technological Forum with participation of 4 thousand delegates from all over the world. I know the IT sphere is one of the actively developing ones in Armenia and it's pleasant to realize that an IT company with Lithuanian capital operate in Armenia.

- The Lithuanian Foreign Minister recently said that Association Agreements with Moldova, Georgia and Armenia are likely to be initialed at Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, partially if not fully. Have you managed to get acquainted with the Armenia-EU negotiation process yet?

- Yes, and I can state with confidence that the process doesn't stop for a minute. I met with the chief negotiators - Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Economy of Armenia - to understand what phase we are in and how we will advance. We hope the process will proceed based on the schedule and the documents will be ready by the Vilnius Summit.

Lithuania has always supported reforms in Armenia within the EU integration process and we think Eastern Partnership is a very good tool for deepening reforms and ensuring diversified economic development of the country.

- In February 2013, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister said that the Association Agreement should be considered not as “upper limit” of relations but the first step toward further progress. He also urged to let partners understand that the door of EU is not closed in long-term prospect. How much does this Lithuania's stance shared by its EU partners?

- The process of EU enlargement is always on the agenda. We should understand that these processes don't go on at the speed some countries would like to have. I am very happy a new member will join the EU on July 1 (Croatia.). That means there will be more opinions, more pluralism. Our Minister has always stressed that we should encourage the countries demonstrating substantial progress.

Though Armenia joined the process later it made much progress toward EU integration. We think “more for more” principle should be applied and carried out so as the partner states knew their efforts won't be in vain if they demonstrate concrete results.

- The Armenian and Lithuanian Defense Ministers have paid mutual visits over the past year. How do you assess the prospects of development of relations in the defense sphere?

- During my first contacts with the Armenian partners, I expressed my gratitude for Armenia's participation in the peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and Afghanistan and delivered the will of our authorities to continue the cooperation after the completion of ISAF mission in 2014 as well.

We see a big potential of cooperation within our Nuclear Security Center. We will invite experts from Armenia as we are aware of their interest in conducting stress tests and other projects.

Cooperation in the cyber security sphere which will also be paid much attention as it will be another priority of Lithuania's EU Presidency.

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