The prime minister told journalists on Monday that the country's ambassadors to Azerbaijan and Hungary had lost his confidence and „decisions will be shortly made“ with regard to them.
„The prime minister expressed his personal opinion as an official. (...) I cannot talk for the premier. He will, perhaps, explain it himself but he really does not refer to the investigation results as there are none as yet,“ Linkevicius said in an interview with Ziniu Radijas (News Radio) on Tuesday.
„We are talking not about this. It's just that he has his position and he expressed it, and we should respect it. He just has no confidence (in them – BNS). I would not link it neither with investigations nor with anything else as ambassadorial duties are really such special duties, it's not simply diplomatic service, but it's the top diplomatic appointment and heads of state really have to trust them,“ the foreign minister said.
According to Linkevicius, proposals on the ambassadors should be submitted on Wednesday.
„We already have all necessary information, including that from the Inspectorate General, and the Security Department, and also from the special expert commission which is in charge of the protection of secrets, and we also have other information, I would like to stress that not only this information – there's also other information. There are now really a number of sources, and I think that we will definitely submit our proposals, perhaps even tomorrow, and it will all happen tomorrow and we'll not need to wait for the end of this week,“ Linkevicius said.
Last month, recordings of a few phone conversations were published on youtube.com, allegedly involving, as it is said, Lithuania's ambassadors to Azerbaijan and Hungary, speaking to diplomats and businessmen in Vilnius. In the recordings, the men share informal personal insights of the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius' visit to Russia, etc.
After the leak, the Foreign Ministry received a letter of resignation from Ambassador to Azerbaijan Arturas Zurauskas. Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told journalists on Monday that Ambassador to Hungary Renatas Juska has not tendered his resignation yet and once gained called the record publication an act of provocation.
Vilnius newsroom, politika@bns.lt, +370 5 205 85 10
