Development cooperation policy

After becoming a member of the European Union Lithuania started implementing a development
cooperation policy, which is part of every developed country's foreign policy. Development
cooperation policy aims to maintain peace and foster economic development and social stability
in the world by reducing disparities between developed and developing countries.
Support for partner countries in the spheres of culture, education, science and culturai heritage
protection is one of the priority areas of Lithuania's development cooperation policy. Around 150
culturai projects were supported in the period between 2007 and 2011. A majority of these
projects were implemented in Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. There were
severaI projects in Afghanistan. The total amount allocated to development cooperation policy in
2007-2011 is approximately LTL 554 million.
One example of a significant project could be the Archaeological - heritage protection mission
in Ghor pro vince project, which took place in 2007-2008 in Afghanistan. Making contacts with
Afghan scientists and introducing Lithuanians to Afghan culture were among the aims of the
project. During the implementation of the project archaeological research in Afghanistan was
conducted, catalogues of discovered items were compiled and discovered items were given to the
Afghanistan National Museum. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for the implementation of this measure.