JERUSALEM (AA) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday took part in a summit of Baltic prime ministers held in Lithuania.
According to a statement released by Netanyahu’s office, the prime minister met with his counterparts from Lithuania (Saulius Skvernelis), Latvia (Maris Kucinskis) and Estonia (Juri Ratas), “along with other senior officials from all three nations”.
It was the first time for an Israeli premier to attend a Baltic prime ministers’ summit and the first visit ever to Lithuania by a senior Israeli official, according to the statement.
Describing the event as “successful”, the statement went on to assert that the four heads of state planned to meet again next year in Jerusalem.
The four leaders, it added, had also agreed to “bolster relations between Israel and the Baltic states and enhance cooperation in various fields”.
Israeli daily Haaretz published a joint statement released after the summit, in which Netanyahu and his three Baltic counterparts “reaffirmed their support for a two-state solution [to the Israel-Palestine conflict] and Israel’s right to exist in peace with its neighbors”.
In the run-up to Friday’s Baltic summit, Netanyahu had expressed a desire to offset what he described as the European Union’s “not-always-friendly attitude” towards the self-proclaimed Jewish state.
