The minister said the issue would be discussed during the two-day meeting of EU ministers starting in Vilnius on Thursday, adding it is still unclear whether the plans to establish the fund would be officially announced during the event.
"I don't know whether we will make the announcement here in Vilnius or sometime later, however, we would like to stimulate the financing of participation of the Eastern Partnership," the minister told BNS on Wednesday.
In his words, some countries say that the participation of the post-Soviet countries in the EU common security and defense policy operations could be sponsored with EU money rather than a special fund.
"Some countries say it should financed with European money, however, this is not happening yet and we're not dropping our idea that there may be a few countries until the European financing is raised," Olekas said.
He said Great Britain and a few more countries he refused to specify supported the initiative.
"We have been strongly assured by our colleagues from the United Kingdom and a few other countries, which I cannot yet name," the minister added.
In August, diplomats of the ministry said that the fund could initially include 100,000 euros, which would go towards "support of participation of partner-countries in operations of the EU common security and defense policy."
The EU Eastern Partnership program includes six countries, namely, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
Lithuania is holding EU Council presidency in the second half of this year and has named closer EU relations with the six post-Soviet countries as one of the presidency priorities.
The two-day meeting of EU defense ministers is starting in Vilnius on Thursday and should be attended by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and EU external policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Olekas says one of his proposals at the meeting will be that the EU defense summit in December should "give an impulse" for the revision of the European defense strategy approved 10 years ago.
The minister also says that Lithuania wants deeper cooperation between the EU and NATO.
"There is no competition between NATO and the EU, however, NATO and the EU can add to each other and achieve more efficient results on the international security arena," the Lithuanian minister concluded.
