Speaking at a presentation ceremony of a collection of documents about the tense interwar Lithuanian-Polish relations, the minister said: "These difficult phases are history, I am convinced that the most difficult ones are indeed in the past. On the other hand, without taking it into consideration, we can hardly reach the level and the phase we are aspiring to, so that we don't waste energy on settlement of local disagreements but, instead, focus on common work."
"This is what our friends on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean are waiting for. Everyone is urging us and expresses astonishment over our continued failure to do this. Let us understand this, as it benefits the national interests of our countries and the region," Linkevičius said.
Two collections of documents covering periods of November 1918 through October 1920 and 1938-1940 were presented at the ministry on Tuesday.
Between the two World Wars, Lithuania refused to establish diplomatic relations with Poland over the occupation of Vilnius region. The relations were restarted again after the 1938 Warsaw ultimatum.
In the minister's words, after Lithuania regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1990, "the start was not an easy one, there was a lot of mistrust, preconceptions that take time to overcome."
In the bilateral agreement signed in 1994, Lithuania and Poland stated that both nations can hold different views on their shared history.
According to the ministry, many documents are published in Lithuania for the first time. This is the first project of integral presentation of diplomatic sources from Lithuania and Poland, which reveal the Lithuanian perception of Polish foreign policies and the Polish perception of the Lithuanian policies on the eve and at the start of World War II.
