India operationalises new resident Mission in Vilnius, Lithuania

"Delighted to share that the Embassy of India, Vilnius has started operations today. Our resident Mission will further strengthen the India-Lithuania partnership," tweeted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

The coordinates of the new Embassy are: Embassy of India, Vilnius, Hilton Garden Inn, Vilnius City Centre, Gedimino pr. 44 B-1, Vilnius, 01110, Lithuania. Tel: + 37052299400 Extn: 255 and Email: hoc.vilnius@mea.gov.in.

Operationalisation of the Indian Mission in Lithuania will help expand India's diplomatic footprint, deepen political relations and strategic cooperation, enable the growth of bilateral trade, investment and economic engagements, facilitate stronger people-to-people contacts and enable more sustained political outreach in a multilateral form. Indian Mission in Lithuania will also better assist the Indian community and protect their interests, read the Ministry of External Affairs release.

On April 27, 2022, the Union Cabinet gave its approval to a proposal for opening a new Indian embassy in Lithuania. This will be the first full-fledged Embassy of India in Lithuania.

Lithuania was the first Baltic country to open an embassy in India in 2008. The Indian officials had earlier expressed intentions of opening an embassy back in the year 2005. Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania has only hosted India's honorary consulate so far which was opened in 2015.

The opening of the Indian mission in Lithuania will help India to expand its strategic, political, and economic engagements with Lithuania. This mission will help in garnering support for the foreign policy objectives of India and provide a much more sustained political outreach. The Indian mission will also help to better assist the Indian community and will also help expand economic, political, and people-to-people relations.

Lithuania shares land borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia to the southwest. It has a maritime border with Sweden to the west on the Baltic Sea.

Opening of Indian Mission in Lithuania will help expand India's diplomatic footprint and deepen political relations and strategic cooperation. It will also provide market access for Indian companies and bolster Indian exports of goods and services.

India recognised Lithuania (along with the other Baltic States of Latvia and Estonia) on 7th September 1991 after acceptance of their independence by the erstwhile USSR. Diplomatic relations were established with Lithuania on 25th February 1992.

Lithuanian language, which is the oldest living Indo- European language, has a lot of similarities with Sanskrit hence signifying possible close ancient links.

Lithuania's Ambassador to India Diana Mickeviciene on Monday said her country takes pride in having a close connection with the Sanskrit language and urged that more research should be done.

"Actually it's a recognised, scientific fact that our language, which is my native tongue, Lithuanian is the closest living sister language of Sanskrit. We don't know how it happened, so, our idea is to research it -- make it more known. It's a pretty known fact in Lithuania, we take pride in this -- having this close connection. But, it's not so known in India, so we intended to inform the people. Several years ago, our Embassy published this dictionary -- very symbolic, dictionary of 108 words which are identical in Sanskrit and in Lithuanian languages. They are very basic words like - Madhu, Deva, Agni," Mickeviciene told ANI.

Lithuanian and Sanskrit Languages are some of the oldest in the world and share great similarities. Lithuanian Embassy in association with Vilnius University and Lithuanian Language Institute has published a dictionary of 108 words in Lithuanian and Sanskrit which sound and mean the same.

To further showcase this linguistic similarity Lithuanian Embassy in New Delhi has initiated a street art project in collaboration with Delhi Street Art, the Harcourt Butler school in Delhi and the winner of the Young Lithuanian Artist Talent Award, Linas Kaziulionis.

The most common day-to-day Sanskrit-Lithuanian words like Sapna, Madhu, Agni, Deva in both Devanagari and Lithuanian script are being painted on the outer wall of the school in the colourful composition depicting windows with shutters in the traditional Lithuanian style and pattern, offering a glimpse into mysterious historical connection between Lithuania and India. The selection of the words is meant to appeal to the understanding of any passing-by reader. (ANI)