VILNIUS, July 16. /ITAR-TASS/. Starting next year the Lithuanian diplomatic mission in Kiev will be also fulfilling duties of NATO’s contact representation in Ukraine, the Baltic state’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

“We are satisfied to announce that Lithuania was once again granted the role of the alliance’s representative,” Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said. “We will imply all our efforts to strengthen cooperation between NATO and Ukraine.”

Lithuania is currently playing the role of NATO’s representative in Sweden. The Baltic state earlier represented the Western military alliance in ex-Soviet republics of Georgia, Moldova and Belarus.

Lithuania’s main tasks in the capacity of the NATO representative in Kiev will be to keep Ukraine informed about the alliance’s policies and activities, organize introductory events, cooperate with local media, authorities and non-governmental organizations.

In an interview with Russia’s Kommersant daily last week Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said the issue of the Ukrainian possible membership in the Western military alliance was currently not on the country’s foreign policy agenda.

“We have a clear-cut position: this issue is not on the current agenda,” Klimkin told the daily. “However, the agenda may change”.