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ECFR at Lithuania?s 'Snow Meeting'

The annual ‘Snow Meeting', hosted by the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and held in the historical city of Trakai on 14th and 15th January, is an informal gathering pulling together high level strategists from the Euro-Atlantic community. This year the Lithuanians welcomed 30 experts and top ranking officials from within Europe and North America, including the Foreign Ministers of Sweden, Ireland, Hungary, Greece, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova. ECFR's Executive Director Mark Leonard and Policy Fellow Nicu Popescu also took part.

The meeting focused on relations between East and West and key strategic challenges that the Trans-Atlantic community will have to face in 2010. It particularly aimed to put forward ideas and proposals on EU and NATO policy towards Russia, engagement with the Eastern European neighbourhood, as well as enlargement of NATO and the EU. In the forum's ‘late night owl session' last night, Mark Leonard spoke about NATO and EU policy vis-à-vis Russia as part of a debate encompassing Russia's foreign policy implications for Eastern Europe, NATO-Russia, EU-Russia and the neighbourhood it shares with the EU.