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Lithuania hands out summit invitations to Eastern Partnership countries

VILNIUS, October 15 (Itar-Tass) - Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry has handed out invitations to ambassadors of six Eastern Partnership countries to the forthcoming summit Vilnius will host in late November.

“Presiding over the Council of the European Union Lithuania attaches great importance to the EU’s Eastern Partnership programme and hopes that the summit in Vilnius would become a significant step towards enhancing dialogue and cooperation among the European Union and participants in the programme,” the Baltic state’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrius Krivas said on Tuesday, adding that the summit results “will contribute to further rapprochement with the EU.”

The invitations to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine were signed by Lithuanian President Dalja Grybauskaite, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission Chairman Jose Manuel Barroso.

At the summit in the Lithuanian capital Ukraine and the European Union plan to sign an association agreement. The similar agreement with Moldova and possibly, with Georgia will be initialled. Armenia also planned to initial an association deal with the EU, but in September it quite unexpectedly for the EU announced its intention to join the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan what Brussels considered incompatible with a free trade deal.

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