Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I would like to extend a warm welcome to ambassador Purlys, whom I have met on previous occasions. I applaud him and his embassy staff for liaising with the Lithuanian expatriate community in Ireland. Officially that community is around 37,000 but may be as high as 50,000. I congratulate the embassy for maintaining that cultural link with the Lithuanian diaspora here. They are very welcome. They bring a lot of cultural diversity to Ireland, which is more than welcome.

This is an exciting time for Lithuania. We have so much in common and have comparable populations. Lithuania has suffered a lot from the same difficulties that we do, including emigration. I hope the ambassador will find the liaison with the Irish Presidency's officials to be beneficial, given that Lithuania is now holding the Presidency for the first time. It is a major, challenging task but I am sure Lithuania is quite capable of coming to terms with it. During the Irish Presidency I was amazed at the amount of activity that parliamentarians, including Ministers, and civil servants had to undertake in hosting such an important event. I wish Lithuania well in carrying out this task.

Lithuania is situated in a very important region and is closely involved through the Nordic-Baltic co-operation agreements with its neighbours, including Estonia and Latvia. I am curious to know how Lithuania will handle the developing relationships with the former adversaries, the Russians who border on Lithuania. We are aware of tensions with Russia and earlier in the week we read about the Magnitsky case. The Lithuanian President has been involved in answering questions about that matter. The gentleman who came here, Mr. Browder, has been sentenced to nine years in prison in absentia by the Russian authorities. We know how sensitive the Russians are about such issues, but it is obviously more sensitive for Lithuania and its immediate neighbours in the Baltic states in terms of how it can develop relationships with Russia.

I wish Lithuania well in holding the current Presidency. How does Ambassador Purlys see the evolution of relationships between Russia and Lithuania in the coming six months?