Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas, Marshall Center Graduate of the Month, August 2007
The Marshall Center Graduate Support Office is proud to name Lithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas as the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies Graduate of the Month for August 2007.
Vaitiekunas, who holds a PhD in Physics and who served for over a decade as a physics researcher with the Academy of Sciences, took on a more public role just prior to Lithuania’s independence. From 1990-1992 Vaitiekunas was Member of the Supreme Council – the Restoration Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, Signatory to the Act of Restoration of the Independent State of Lithuania; 1992-1993 he served as an advisor to Lithuania’s newly restored national Parliament (Seimas). He attended the very first Marshall Center course in 1994 (the 19-week 94-1 Executive Program) as senior assistant for Foreign Affairs to the President of Lithuania. Vaitiekunas continued serving in this capacity until 1998, when he was appointed head of the Central European Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then shortly thereafter served as an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was appointed Ambassador to Latvia in 1999 and served with distinction at this post until 2004, when he again returned to serve as chief foreign policy advisor to the President, and then as ambassador-at-large at the Ministry. Vaitiekunas then served as Ambassador to Belarus from 2005 until mid-2006, when he was named Foreign Minister.
“It is an honor and pleasure to hear about your intention to name me as Marshall Center Graduate of the Month for August 2007,” Vaitiekunas wrote to GSO recently. He added, “I am pleased to state that since my studies at the Marshall Center with young politicians pursuing ideals of freedom and democracy, the Baltic and Central European region has become an example of security, stability and successful reforms. I would like our success story to continue and hope that democracy, security and economic development open up for even more nations in our hemisphere so that they too will have the possibility to build their future in a secure environment.”
Vaitiekunas concluded in his correspondence that “the Marshall Center has raised and rallied the community of politicians, diplomats and security experts to take responsibility for their countries’ security and for global security. I believe that together we can find the right ways and meet the challenges of the modern world. Indeed, people are right to say that the one who goes forward reaches his goal.”
Beginning with March 2007, the Marshall Center Graduate Support Office has featured a Marshall Center Graduate of the Month. The purpose of this initiative is to feature Marshall Center alumni who are playing an active role in furthering the ideals of the Marshall Center in creating a more stable security environment by advancing democratic institutions and relationships; promoting active, peaceful security cooperation; and enhancing enduring partnerships among the nations of North America, Europe, Eurasia, and beyond.
