Lithuania

Political relations

France and Lithuania have extensive bilateral relations and hold regular political dialogue. In September 2020, the foreign ministers of both countries endorsed an updated roadmap for the Bilateral Strategic Partnership signed in 2009. In July 2013, their defence ministers signed a military cooperation agreement. Since 2007, France has participated in the NATO air policing mission in the Baltic States and has carried out ten successive rotations from the bases at Šiauliai in Lithuania and Åmari in Estonia.
France and Lithuania take part in officer exchange programmes at the Vilnius Military Academy and the St Cyr Coëtquidan Military Schools. The Lithuanian Air Force sends its staff to France for training at the Analysis and Simulation Centre for Air Operations (CASPOA) and the Air Defence and Control Training Centre (CICDA), which train air operation specialists and military controllers. Since 2013, France has seconded a high-ranking officer to the NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence in Vilnius. A French combined arms battlegroup was deployed to Rukla, Lithuania as part of NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) from January to August 2018, then from July to December 2020.

Economic relations

France is Lithuania’s 11th-largest supplier and 14th-largest customer. Since 2020, trade between France and Lithuania has grown. French exports and imports stand at €1.059 billion and €952 million respectively, which account for a respective increase of 27.6% and 24% compared with 2021. France has long had a trade deficit with Lithuania. The situation has improved in recent years and France has had a trade surplus since 2020. In 2022, this surplus stood at €21 million as a result of the considerable increase in our exports and their value (automotive sectors, pharmaceutical products, wines and spirits, air and space manufacturing). In 2022, the main French imports were fertilizers (€216.3 million), furniture (€ 175.4 million) and timber (€83.5 million). Chemicals were the biggest imports accounting for 22.7% of total imports.
Some 40 French-owned companies are present in Lithuania, employing some 2,700 people. They include Veolia, JC Decaux, Roquette Frères, Consolis, Atos, Coface, Ipsen, Servier, Total, Schneider and Accor.