City Vilnius Financial News

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania say they are committed to completing by the end of the decade a financially troubled and badly delayed high-speed rail project integrating the three Baltic countries with the continental European rail network

voters from Vilnius to Madrid were casting ballots Sunday on the final day of elections for the EU's parliament, with far-right parties eyeing gains at a pivotal time for the bloc.

Google Doodle on Friday commemorated Lithuania’s two Independence Days: the Restoration of the State Day. According to the description, on February 16, 1918, the Council of Lithuania ratified the Act of Independence, signalling the end of Soviet domination. This day holds significance as Lithuanians pay tribute to the individuals who fought and endured hardships to secure their country's sovereignty.

Ukraine has shown the world that Russia's military can be stopped, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday as he began a visit to the Baltic nations in search of more help for his country against the Kremlin's larger and better-supplied forces in the 22-month-old invasion. Speaking in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, Zelenskyy said Ukraine still must bolster its air defenses against Russia's intensified missile and drone onslaughts and replenish its ammunition supplies as long-range strikes become the main feature of this winter's fighting. «We have proven that Russia can be stopped, that deterrence is possible,» he said after talks with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on his first foreign trip of the year. The massive Russian barrages — more than 500 drones and missiles were fired between Dec. 29 and Jan.

NATO summit in 2019 when Mr Trump asked jeeringly: “Where are you at? What is your number?" Mr Trudeau had more friends at that summit than Mr Trump. But since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Canada’s position as a penny-pinching outlier has become more embarrassing for the country. The statement of Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary-general, before the NATO summit in Vilnius this month that spending 2% of national GDP on defence was no longer to be regarded as the “the ceiling" but “the floor" could have been designed to cause blushes in Ottawa.

Read more of our recent coverage of the Ukraine war As he headed to NATO’s gathering in Vilnius, a tetchy Volodymyr Zelensky called it “unprecedented and absurd" that Ukraine was apparently not being given a clear promise of speedy membership of the alliance. If that was meant as a last-ditch attempt to twist arms, it failed. The final communiqué, as he feared, refers to a need for conditions to be met and for allies to agree, even as it avoids dates and timelines.

deny Russia a victory but avoid a direct war between it and NATO. Ukraine wants more, and applied to join the NATO alliance in September 2022. It will be denied for now.

The Swedish government wants to increase the country's defense budget by 28% as it prepares to join the NATO alliance

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FNTT) of Lithuania has released a new list of anti-money laundering (AML) violators, featuring several crypto service providers in the country.

US President Joe Biden has cracked a joke after media reports suggested that Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin could be in danger for carrying out an attempted mutiny last month against Russian President Vladimir Putin and briefly capturing Moscow's military facility. In a press conference in Helsinki, Biden said, "If I were he I’d be careful what I ate...I would keep an eye on my menu". The joke was a reference to high-profile instances of Russian security services using nerve agents and polonium to poison and kill political enemies of President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed new security commitments from the G7 powers on Wednesday, but warned that these could not be a substitute for eventual NATO membership. Speaking after talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Zelensky said the G7 promises should be seen «not instead of NATO, but as security guarantees on our way to integration». «We can state that the results of this summit are good, but should we receive an invitation, then that would be the optimum,» he said at NATO's summit in Vilnius.

NATO's accusation that China challenges the bloc's interests and security, and opposed any attempt by the military alliance to expand its footprint into the Asia-Pacific region. In a strongly worded communique issued midway into a two-day summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on Tuesday, NATO said the People's Republic of China (PRC) challenged its interests, security and values with its «ambitions and coercive policies».

NATO leaders gathered Wednesday to launch a highly symbolic new forum for ties with Ukraine, after committing to provide the country with more military assistance for fighting Russia but only vague assurances of future membership. U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts will sit down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the new NATO-Ukraine Council, a permanent body where the 31 allies and Ukraine will sit as equals and be able to call crisis talks.

alliance after the members said they would allow Ukraine to join the alliance “when allies agree and conditions are met". Following this statement, Zelenskyy blasted the organization’s failure to set a timetable for his country as “absurd." Although many NATO members have funneled arms and ammunition to Zelenskyy’s forces, there is no consensus among the 31 allies for admitting Ukraine into NATO’s ranks.

On the eve of the NATO Summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky exuded confidence that the war-torn country will become part of the alliance. In a press statement on Monday night, Zelensky said, "We are still working on the wording, that is, on the specific words of such confirmation, but we already understand the fact that Ukraine will be in the alliance...And we are working to make the algorithm for gaining membership as clear and fast as possible". European diplomats said that the Western allies of Kyiv are still finalising a joint framework that would pave the way for long-term security assurances for Ukraine, and may wait until the end of a NATO summit this week to announce them.

VILNIUS (Reuters) — Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to forward to parliament Sweden's bid to join the NATO military alliance, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday, on the eve of a NATO summit in Vilnius.

By Andrius Sytas

alliance about the specific nature of this collaboration as they grapple with how to navigate their relationship with China. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno confirmed that Kishida intends to emphasize the importance of stronger relations between Japan and NATO, despite objections from Beijing regarding the alliance's activities in the region. Alongside Kishida, leaders from South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand will also be present at the summit in Vilnius.

Biden has two main jobs on Ukraine at next week's NATO summit, but there's a hitch: they take him in opposite directions. The US president will arrive in Lithuania late Monday on a mission to stoke NATO support for Ukraine while simultaneously pouring cold water on dreams of quickly bringing Ukraine into the alliance.

Joe Biden has scheduled a diplomatic trip to Europe this month with stops in the United Kingdom, at the NATO summit in Lithuania and for meetings in Finland, the White House said Sunday. Biden is set to depart July 9 for «engagements» with the UK's King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the White House said in a statement.

Lithuania is building a huge tech campus — Europe's largest — in the capital of Vilnius, as it looks to become the new tech capital of the Baltics.