Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday, 12 Elul, departed on a diplomatic visit to Vilna, Lithuania. He will attend a summit of the Baltic states (B3+1). Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis and Netanyahu were holding bilateral talks on Thursday evening before being joined by their counterparts — Estonia’s Juri Ratas and Maris Kucinskis of Latvia — on Friday.

Netanyahu’s trip is the first visit to Lithuania by an Israeli prime minister. He was welcomed by Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius at the Vilnius airport.

Netanyahu said the purpose of his visit was “balancing the European Union’s not-always-friendly approach toward the state of Israel, so that we will receive fairer and truer treatment.”

Lithuania has not followed Washington in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and supports Iran’s nuclear deal despite Israeli and U.S. opposition.

“This visit is a very good chance to build further the strategic partnership both countries have demonstrated an interest to develop,” Marius Laurinavicius, a senior expert at the Vilnius Institute for Policy Analysis, told The Associated Press.

The Baltic nation of nearly 3 million was part of the Russian Empire before declaring its independence in 1918. Lithuania was then independent until 1940, when it was occupied by the Soviet Union. It regained its freedom in 1991 and joined the EU and NATO in 2004.

Netanyahu has roots in Lithuania — his mother’s parents lived in the central village of Seduva.

More than 90 percent of Lithuania’s 240,000 Jews were killed during World War II. The role that Lithuanian soldiers played in those deaths is sensitive, as the country mainly views itself as a victim of Nazi and Soviet occupations.

During his visit, Netanyahu also will attend a memorial ceremony at the Ponary memorial, the site near Vilnius where up to 100,000 people were killed by Nazi troops and Lithuanian collaborators. He will be accompanied by Fania Brancovskaja, a Holocaust survivor from the Vilna ghetto. The Prime Minister will award a medal and certificate to Birute Slapikiene, the granddaughter of a family of Righteous among the Nations, and visit the Vilna Choral Shul, which survived World War II, where he will meet with members of the Lithuanian Jewish community.

It appears that during his official visit abroad, Minister of Culture & Sport (Likud) Miri Regev will become the acting prime minister and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman will fill Mr. Netanyahu’s position as head of the Political-Security Cabinet in the event the forum will be compelled to convene in his absence.

During the visit to Lithuania I will recall the splendid Jewish community that was there, its great heights and the abyss of the tragedy of the Holocaust. There is also a personal aspect: The families of my parents came from Lithuania. I am making this visit also for this.

— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) August 23, 2018

(AP / YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)