Lithuania is one of the most pro-

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

nations in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and the world, with 73% of Lithuanians viewing the U.S. positively in 2011. According to the 2012 U.S. Global Leadership Report, 48% of Lithuanians approve of U.S. leadership, with 20% disapproving and 32% uncertain.

History

The United States established diplomatic relations with Lithuania on 28 July 1922. Following the start of the World War II, the Soviet invasion and occupation forced the closure of the Legation to Lithuania on 5 September 1940. However,

Lithuanian Diplomatic Service The Diplomatic Service of the Republic of Lithuania is the part of the governmental service tasked with enforcing the foreign policy set by the President, the Parliament, and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. The head of the service is t ...

in the United States continued uninterrupted. The United States never recognized the forced incorporation of Lithuania into the USSR and views the present government of Lithuania as a legal continuation of the interwar republic. In 2007, the United States and Lithuania celebrated 85 years of continuous diplomatic relations. Lithuania has enjoyed most-favored-nation treatment with the United States since December 1991. Since 1992, the United States has committed more than $100 million in Lithuania to economic and political transformation and to humanitarian needs. The United States and Lithuania signed an agreement on bilateral trade and intellectual property protection in 1994 and a bilateral investment treaty in 1997. In 1998, the United States signed a " Charter of Partnership" with Lithuania and the other Baltic countries establishing bilateral working groups focusing on improving regional

security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...

, defense, and economic issues. Today, over 650,000 individuals who identify as

Lithuanian American Lithuanian Americans refers to American citizens and residents who are Lithuanian and were born in Lithuania, or are of Lithuanian descent. New Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has the largest percentage of Lithuanian Americans (20.8%) in the United ...

live in the United States. Lithuanian immigration began before the United States even became a country, with individuals like Alexander Curtius settling in New Amsterdam (what would later become

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

) in 1659. Lithuania was part of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...

until 1795, when foreign powers partitioned it and Lithuania was largely incorporated into the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. Despite attempts by the

Tsarist Tsarist autocracy (russian: царское самодержавие, transcr. ''tsarskoye samoderzhaviye''), also called Tsarism, was a form of autocracy (later absolute monarchy) specific to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states ...

government in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

to prevent residents of the empire from emigrating, many Lithuanians came to the United States throughout the 19th and early 20th Centuries, settling primarily in the

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

(especially

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

) and the Midwest. Lithuanian immigration tapered off with the passage of nativist legislation like the

Emergency Quota Act __NOTOC__ The Emergency Quota Act, also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, the Per Centum Law, and the Johnson Quota Act (ch. 8, of May 19, 1921), was formulated mainly in response to the larg ...

of 1921 and the

Immigration Act of 1924 The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the Asian Exclusion Act and National Origins Act (), was a United States federal law that prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from the Eastern ...

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. Smaller waves of Lithuanian migration to the United States occurred at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

(thanks to the

Displaced Persons Act The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 authorized for a limited period of time the admission into the United States of 200,000 certain European displaced persons (DPs) for permanent residence. This displaced persons (DP) Immigration program emerged fro ...

) and when Lithuania regained independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990. Principal U.S. officials include: * Ambassador—

Deborah McCarthy Deborah A. McCarthy is an American diplomat and a former Ambassador of the United States of America to Lithuania. Early life and education McCarthy spent much of her youth in France and Argentina, where her father served in U.S. missions. McCart ...

* Deputy Chief of Mission—Anne Hall * Political and Economic Section Chief—John M. Finkbeiner Jr. * PAO—Jonathan M. Berger * Defense Attaché—Jeffrey L. Jennette * Defense Cooperation Officer—Cynthia A. Matuskevich * Management Officer—Alboino L. Deulus * Consular Officer—Anthony T. Beaver The U.S.

Embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

in Lithuania is located in Vilnius (Akmenu 6). Principal Lithuanian officials include: * Ambassador - Rolandas KriščiūnasAmabassador
Lithuanian Embassy, Retrieved 1 May 2016 * Executive Assistant to the Ambassador - Eglė Janeliūnaitė * Deputy Chief of Mission - Tomas Gulbinas

Gallery

File:President George W. Bush and President Valdus Adamkus.jpg, President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

and President

Valdas Adamkus Valdas Adamkus (; born Voldemaras Adamkavičius; 3 November 1926) is a Lithuanian-American politician, diplomat and civil engineer. He served as the 5th and 7th President of Lithuania from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009. Adamkus' ...

File:Secretary Kerry Meets With Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė (2).jpg, US Secretary of State

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he ...

meets with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė File:Vice President Harris met with Prime Minister Simonyte to celebrate 100 years of diplomatic relations between US and Lithuania.jpg, Vice President

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well ...

met with Prime Minister

Ingrida Šimonytė Ingrida Šimonytė (; born 15 November 1974) is a Lithuanian politician and economist who is the Prime Minister of Lithuania since 11 December 2020. She has been a Member of the Seimas of Antakalnis constituency since 2016 and was Minister of F ...

to celebrate 100 years of diplomatic relations between US and Lithuania File:Secretary Blinken Meets with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Landsbergis (51923406852).jpg, US Secretary of State

Antony J. Blinken Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American government official and diplomat serving as the 71st United States secretary of state since January 26, 2021. He previously served as Deputy National Security Advisor (United States), depu ...

meets with Lithuanian Foreign Minister

Gabrielius Landsbergis Gabrielius Landsbergis (born 7 January 1982 in Vilnius) is a Lithuanian politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the 18th Government of the Republic of Lithuania led by the Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė. He is a Member of the Seimas for C ...

File:221215-D-BN624-0155 (52565841696).jpg, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III hosts Lithuanian Defense Minister

Arvydas Anušauskas Arvydas Anušauskas (born 29 September 1963) is a Lithuanian politician and historian. He focuses on the history of the interwar Lithuanian secret services, KGB actions in Lithuania, and Soviet repressions in Lithuania. As a member of the Homel ...

File:Look! Up in the sky! , Apache Helicopters join Saber Strike 2015 150613-A-FJ979-007.jpg,

Lithuanian Armed Forces The Lithuanian Armed Forces () are the military of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Armed Forces consist of the Lithuanian Land Forces, the Lithuanian Naval Force and the Lithuanian Air Force. In wartime, the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service ( ...

training together with the

US Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

References

External links

History of Lithuania - U.S. relations

Embassy of the United States

Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the USA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lithuania-United States relations Bilateral relations of the United States

History

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links