M. Sinkevičius Doubts Budrio's Future – Has Several Criticisms

Lithuanian politician M. Sinkevičius has voiced significant doubts about the government's ability to fulfill its political promises, particularly in foreign policy. He described a "silent resistance" to implementing electoral pledges, where a multitude of reasons and circumstances are found to delay or ignore crucial tasks, ultimately leading to a lack of results despite eloquent pronouncements.

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politicians, having gained power, want to implement their political program, their promises to voters, and sometimes one gets the feeling that sometimes there is a silent resistance to the implementation of those promises, programmatic things. A pile of reasons, circumstances, situations are found not to implement them, to postpone them, to defer them, somehow to ignore them. Sometimes one can understand something, but when you sometimes look that quite a lot of time has passed, and you ask, where are the results, what changes, and everything is again dressed up in correct phrases, positions, wise theses, but there are no results and it is not even clear in time how, what will be done

Sinkevičius specifically pointed to the issue of U.S. troop rotation in Lithuania as a matter of concern. He expressed disappointment with what he perceives as a passive approach, stating, "We are relying on the hope that everything will be fine." Instead, he advocates for a more proactive strategy, urging top foreign policy officials to actively engage with Washington, the Pentagon, and members of Congress and the Senate to lobby for Lithuania's interests.

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I am a little surprised and disappointed, because it looks like our strategy on this issue is: we are relying on the hope that everything will be fine. I am not a supporter of such a strategy, I would be a supporter of a strategy where our highest foreign policy implementers would already be sitting in Washington, in the Pentagon, walking around members of Congress and the Senate, engaging in such lobbying, explaining what the situation is here

While acknowledging the importance of the President's opinion in forming the government, Sinkevičius indicated that no final decisions have been made regarding key positions. He suggested that potential candidates for Foreign Minister, such as D. Matulionis, the president's chief advisor, are being considered, but emphasized that clarity is still lacking. He also noted that Lithuania does not have an abundance of ready replacements for such roles, implying a need to carefully consider experienced individuals.

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We can certainly talk and we will talk. The opinion of His Excellency the President is very important to me in this case. Nothing has been decided yet either. Sometimes attempts are made to read between the lines, between the statements, what is being tried to be said here, but for now there are certain doubts, certain questions, but diplomats, experienced people must be evaluated. We don't have that much luxury here that 5 ministers are ready and waiting at the door and everyone will suddenly take over something

The politician's remarks come amid discussions about the future of K. Budrio in his post, with the President having previously linked it to progress in normalizing relations with China and agreements with Taiwan. However, Sinkevičius indicated that the U.S. troop rotation issue is a more sensitive matter for him. He stressed that while there are doubts and questions, the process of evaluating diplomats and experienced individuals is ongoing, and no definitive outcomes have been reached.

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Whether Deividas Matulionis or other persons could replace? It is debatable. Will it be considered and will not transform into anything tangible? Likely. There is no clarity yet. If he were, I certainly wouldn't hide him and would say so