LITHUANIA: Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip arrive in Lithuania and begin their first ever visit to the Baltic nations.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip began their first ever visit to the Baltic nations on Tuesday (October 17). Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia won their independence from Moscow in the early 1990s after decades of sometimes brutal Soviet occupation and have since emerged as democracies with the fastest-growing economies in Europe. Her first official engagement was a meeting with Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus at the Presidential Palace. Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to the Town Hall where she warmly greeted by people in the square outside who waved British flags and Lithuanian flags. In a speech to the Lithuanian parliament, the Queen said the three countries had managed to put behind them a turbulent and often violent past and now embraced an exciting future, having emerged 'from the shadow of the Soviet Union'. Royal advisors said the October 16-20 visit to the Baltic states, which joined the European Union and NATO in 2004, would reinforce links with Britain as partners in the EU and allies in the military alliance.

ITN Source | October 19, 2006

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