King Filip and Queen Mathilde are on a state visit to Lithuania. Queen Mathilda will be investigating her Baltic roots, while the king will embody Belgium’s support for Lithuania as it faces the ramifications of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The state visit takes the Belgian royals to the eastern border of the European Union and to an area that is closely watching Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Lithuania was incorporated into the Soviet Empire in the war, an annexation that Belgium never recognised.
During the first day of their visit King Filip and Queen Mathilde honour those who died during the events of 1990 when Lithuania was the first former Soviet Republic to break free as the Soviet Union collapsed.
The royal visit is a show of solidarity with the Baltic state that is among the EU countries to lead the response to Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine first by preventing transports to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and now by refusing Russian tourists.
On Day 3 of the visit King Filip will visit a Belgian military detachment that forms part of NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group. 145 Belgian soldiers are deployed in Lithuania. King Filip will visit the Pabradé base in eastern Lithuania, ten kilometres from the Belarusian border. The Belgian defence minister and the chief of the defence staff are travelling too.
Queen Mathilda will be visiting a centre for Ukrainian refugees. The trip is seen as a first challenge for Belgian foreign minister Lahbib (Francophone liberal). Ukraine will dominate talks, while the foreign minister earlier got into trouble as a result of her visit to Russian occupied Crimea during her time as a journalist.
On Day 2 of the visit Belgian and Lithuanian businesses will examine how they can join forces to achieve a sustainable economy. All Baltic states have now weaned themselves off Russian gas, but for Lithuania the transition from fossil fuels remains a challenge. Belgium hopes to play a role in the construction of Lithuanian wind farms.
Queen Mathilde, of course, has Lithuanian roots. Her mum was a Polish countess and her grandmother, Princess Zofia Maria Sapieha-Kodenska, was a descendant of the powerful Polish-Lithuanian family, the Sapiehas. During her first visit to Lithuania, the queen will visit the graves of her ancestors as well as the Biblioteca Sapiehana at Vilnius University.
The queen is also visiting the Jewish History Museum in the capital, Vilnius. Due to the Jewish presence Vilnius was known as the Jerusalem of the North. There were lively contacts between Vilnius and Belgium and many Jewish intellectuals sought refuge here ahead of the Nazi invasion and the Holocaust.
Kaunas, Lithuania’s second city, is European City of Culture this year. The Belgian royals will visit the Čiurlionis Museum devoted to Lithuania’s greatest composer, painter and author.
