Siliņa said she had proposed to form "a high-level interstate co-ordination format" – presumably a working group by another name – to oversee co-ordination "on a daily basis".
The Latvian government release did not give any details of how this new body might differ from RB Rail, the joint venture of all three countries which is in charge of the Rail Baltica project.
"Rail Baltica is a significant project for the competitiveness and military mobility of the Baltic States, and the challenges for its completion are not only for Latvia, but also for Lithuania and Estonia. It is a large-scale, multi-year project, and the costs calculated in the past in none of the countries correspond to the costs of infrastructure construction as they are today," Siliņa said, adding that a "unified strategy and coordinated action are needed to attract the necessary additional funding.”
The Lithuanian government's release made no mention of Siliņa's proposal, though it did say that Lithuanian PM Šimonytė noted: "Given the large funding needs, the completion of the Rail Baltica project must be one of our priorities in the negotiations on the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework."
The Baltic Prime Ministers also discussed regional security, the necessary support for Ukraine, as well as addressing the circumvention of sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
"To strengthen the implementation of sanctions, the Prime Ministers agreed today to establish a common regional list of controlled battlefield relevant items subject to export restrictions to Russia and Belarus. The Joint Declaration adopted by the Prime Ministers in this regard foresees that the process will be coordinated by the Foreign Ministries of the countries together with the relevant authorities," said the Lithuanian release.
This meeting of Prime Ministers in Vilnius concludes the Lithuanian presidency of the Baltic Council of Ministers in 2024. In 2025, Latvia will hold the presidency of the Baltic Council of Ministers.
