The first visa ever issued by post-soviet Lithuania was returned to the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a ceremony in Vilnius recently.
At the special event held at Lithuania’s Vilnius Inter-national Airport, prominent British journalist Edward Lucas handed over his passport, stamped with the first Lithuanian visa, to the country’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Šarunas Adomavicius.
On 28 March 1990 at that same airport, Lucas’ passport was stamped with the first visa of the newly independent country by Algirdas Saudargas, who then was Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Giedrius Cekuolis, the Foreign Ministry’s former chief of protocol.
Lucas said at the ceremony that his visa stamp was “in a certain sense one of the founding documents of Lithuania’s diplomacy”.
In his speech, Vice-Minister Adomavicius said the issuance of the visa was one of the steps towards the realisation of Lithuania’s sovereignty.
“It was especially important that Lithuania started controlling its state borders and implementing foreign policy,” he said, noting the importance of showing the world that Lithuania was capable of deciding who could enter the country – the legislation for which was prepared in just one day.
Lucas’s passport was presented to Lithuania on the 20th anniversary of the restoration of Lithuania’s independence. The passport will be displayed at Vilnius International Airport before relocating to a new exhibition on the history of Lithuania’s diplomacy at the country’s National Museum.
Lucas, who is central and east European correspondent with The Economist, was also conferred the Cross of the Knight of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, the Foreign Ministry’s Star of Lithuania’s Millennium and the National Defense System Medal of Merit.
