“All plans are formed as if everything works, but they are very independent and do not necessarily interact. And if there is interaction, it is not necessarily effective. Everyone wants to cover themselves, their abilities, and does not want to do more than planned,” he told BNS.
The signatory said that currently there are many discussions about the security situation in the public space, but when an incident occurs, according to him, there is confusion, not everyone knows how to act.
A member of the general defense initiative group emphasized that his and his colleagues’ goal is to offer government leaders a model that best meets today’s expectations.
“State institutions have their tasks, plans, but they are not combined into one management. There is general coordination, planned in the Government, and the president has also established several commissions, (…) but their coordination does not respond to the challenges we observe. (…) We propose that a vertical structure should be provided so that institutions have interaction in the service chain,” said A. Degutis.
According to him, in a crisis situation, the role of coordinator should be assumed by the Government, because it “has the most power instruments.”
“People usually think that general defense is the army. (…) There are institutions, municipalities, non-governmental organizations, business structures, and finally individual citizens who must know and have a place in the whole plan, each of us,” explained the member of the initiative group.
“We do not have that whole, and that mostly causes people concern and misunderstanding. (…) We want, without creating anything more, to at least combine what exists now into a whole and see what is missing,” he emphasized.
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This week, members of the initiative group met with Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius and presented their idea to him; in the conversation, the head of the Government said that Lithuania needs an effective general defense system.
“Lithuania needs an effective general defense system. It still needs to be created. Thanks to the initiative group for the ideas and proposals raised,” he said.
A. Degutis, asked what the initiative group intends to do next, said that after the mentioned meeting, the prime minister has to assess the situation and discuss it within the faction.
“And we have also talked that it would be good to visit other institutions, so we will simply look for ways to talk with the Seimas, the leadership of the Seimas,” explained the signatory.
According to A. Degutis, the initiative group consists of signatories, diplomats, former military personnel, historians.
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