Table Top Exercises “Coherent Resilience 2019” were officially closed at the Government of Lithuania

On 16th of May, the final conference, which closed a three-day international training course, was held at the Lithuanian Government Palace. Official closing event gathered all the participants, as well as Defence Minister of the Republic of Lithuania Mr. Raimundas KAROBLIS, and the 1st Deputy Chancellor of the Government of Lithuania Mr. Deividas MATULIONIS. The main intent of the event was to review exercise results and recommendations provided by the experts, who analysed region’s energy security gaps through four different perspectives.

The final conference was opened by a welcoming speech of the Minister of Defence Mr. Raimundas KAROBLIS, who emphasized the importance of mutual cooperation between NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence (NATO ENSEC COE) and Joint Research Centre (JRC) of European Commission. He also expressed willingness to see the continuation of this project in the future in order to ensure energy resilience in the Baltic Sea region. Talking about constant threats to the Baltic States’ energy infrastructure the minister stated that “the only deterrence is resilience” and added, that despite existing improvements of energy security in our region, there remain some gaps in legislature and infrastructure that need to be resolved.

The 1st Deputy Chancellor of the Government of Lithuania Mr. Deividas MATULIONIS also thanked the guests for their contribution and didn’t miss a chance to stress the existing challenges of Astravas nuclear power plant built in the outskirts of Lithuanian capital. The following speech was given by the Deputy Director-General of Joint Research Center (JRC) of European Commission Mr. Maive RUTE, who declared that joint efforts of NATO and EU is the key in solving the occurring challenges. On behalf of JRC she stated the cooperation with NATO ENSEC COE should be continued in the future.