The First decade of Lithuanian-Finnish bilateral relations 1990-2000: challenges and opportunities

ENThe aim of the article is to analyse the Lithuanian-Finnish bilateral relations during the period of 1990-2000 by revealing the key political and economic aspects relating to the major challenges, including those which provided an opportunity for the closer development of bilateral relations. The following objectives were established: 1) to reveal the position taken by Finland towards Lithuania in 19901991 and the expectations that Lithuania had in respect of Finland, 2) to discuss the circumstances of the establishment and maintenance of diplomatic relations, 3) to reveal the political and economic events that determined the change of dynamics of bilateral relations in 1992-1994, 1995-1998 and 1998-2000. The research object limits with Lithuanian-Finnish bilateral relations. It does not extend to the aspects of the development of Lithuanian-Finnish relations as manifested in the context of multilateral relations, in particular as regards the joint work in the Council of the Baltic Sea States and the Nordic-Baltic Eight, NB8 (named as 5+3 until 2000). The article is based exclusively on the analysis of the archival documents stored at the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which have never been researched and published in individual publications. The internal documents of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the documents accumulated by the Embassy of Lithuania to Finland constitute the main source of the research. They include various reports, insights on the prospects of relations, plans, the material on meetings prepared before the visits of public officials (presidents, prime ministers, ministers), minutes of various meetings (e.g., with ambassadors). The verbatim reports of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Parliament and their resolutions available on the website https://e-seimas.lrs.lt were also an important source of the study. [Extract, p. 185]

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