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Lithuanian president said to have taken calmly decisions of leaders of Belarus, Russia to decline invitation to attend independence celebrations

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has taken calmly the decisions of the leaders of Belarus and Russia to decline her invitation to attend festivities to be held in Vilnius on Thursday to mark the 20th anniversary of the restoration of Lithuania`s independence, local media outlets reported, BelaPAN said.

Ms. Grybauskaite said that Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Dmitry Medvedev had offered their greetings on the anniversary and pledged that their countries would be represented at the celebrations by high-ranking officials, according to the report.

“For the first time in many years, Lithuania has received official greetings from the Russian and Belarusian presidents on the occasion of the independence anniversary,” the Lithuanian leader said. “Both countries called for the further development of bilateral relations and invited me to visit them at any time that I may find appropriate.”

The Belarusian delegation to the festivities is to be led by Deputy Prime Minister Viktar Bura and the Russian delegation by Transport Minister Igor Levitin who co-chairs the Russian-Lithuanian interstate commission on trade, economic, scientific, technical, humanitarian and cultural cooperation.

The leaders of Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia have confirmed that they would attend the festivities.

Newly elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has also declined the invitation, citing a tight schedule.