Lithuanian Diplomatic Service
[2] In 1918, Lithuanian diplomacy's goal number one was to achieve de jure recognition of the restored state of Lithuania, and to demarcate its borders.
The second agreement was made with Latvia, granting this country a loan in exchange for the right of Lithuania to use the port of Liepāja for transportation of goods and services.
Before Lithuania lost its independence, it had active missions to Berlin, Buenos Aires, Brussels, London, Moscow, Paris, the Holy See, Rome, Stockholm, Tallinn, Washington, Warsaw, Geneva, Prague.
Other significant diplomatic achievements were as follows: the signing of the Klaipėda Convention legalizing the annexation of the region to Lithuania between the Republic of Lithuania and the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris on 8 May 1924,[8] the entry into a concordat with the Vatican on 27 September 1927,[9] and the Lithuania–Germany border agreement of 29 January 1928, which legalized the national border after Lithuanian annexed the Klaipėda region.
Lithuania's occupation by the Soviet Union on 15 June 1940 did not bring the operations of the diplomatic service to a halt, but made the coordination of its activities from Lithuanian soil impossible.
[10] During the period of occupation, operations of the Lithuanian diplomatic service were heavily burdened as the Soviet Union had taken over some of the mission buildings and parts of Lithuania's gold reserves.
On 23 July 1940, US Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles,[11] declared that the US would not recognize the Baltics' incorporation into the Soviet Union on the basis of the Stimson Doctrine.
The US thus allowed Lithuanian diplomats to continue to work on its territory in Washington, D.C., New York, and Chicago and refused to surrender Lithuania's gold reserves to the Soviets, however it billed from it for the embassies.
[12] France and Switzerland never complied with Soviet requests to transfer the gold, and in 1991 returned the original bars with Smetona's stamp to the Re-Established State of Lithuania.
[12] The United Kingdom, despite having closed Lithuania's mission to London, allowed envoy Bronius Kazys Balutis[13] to continue to work in the country as well.
[26] The gold reserve, valued at approximately $2.8 million, was sold in 1950 and 1955 and conservatively invested into Treasury bills and diversified industrial shares.
[28] Based on a verbal agreement, made on 30 January 1980 between Anatols Dinbergs and Stasys Antanas Bačkis, Latvians agreed to provide interest-free annual loan of $120,000 from investment returns generated on their reserves to the Lithuanians.
[25][32] After Lithuania declared the restoration of independence on 11 March 1990, steps had to be taken to consolidate the previously exiled diplomatic service into the new national government.
[34] On 26 April 1994, the Republic of Lithuania and Poland signed an agreement on friendly relations and good neighboring cooperation, laying down a foundation for the strategic partnership between the two countries.
The Charter endorsed a common goal of working together to create conditions for the integration of the so-called Vilnius Group into European and trans-Atlantic political, economic, and security structures, including NATO.
Diplomats abroad also negotiate with the government of the host country, protect the rights and interests of citizens and companies, legally obtain, collect, and transmit to the FM information, promote friendly cross-border relations, disseminate information about Lithuania, and maintain and strengthen the relationship between Lithuanians residing in the host country and Lithuania.
