Thanking France

It was a great honour to receive the title Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honour from the French Ambassador, back in my home country, Lithuania. Here is my speech in full, and my sincere thanks to the people of France for their support. 🇱🇹❤️🇫🇷

Madam Ambassador, Ambassadors, colleagues and loved ones, 

Thank you for this honour. Thank you for bringing us all together on this beautiful autumn day. 

It is customary to say this is not only a recognition of my work, but a recognition of what my country, Lithuania, stands for: freedom of the individual, freedom of speech, freedom from lawlessness.

I am particularly happy that my family could be here with me today. In this country, the fight for freedom has always been a family matter. In this room right now sit my parents and my grandfather, who fought for freedom before me; and my wife, who has carried the burden of fighting for freedom alongside me; and our children, who will have to preserve this freedom for their own.

We restored our independence not so long ago, and so we easily recognise the will to be free when we see it in others. In many cases, Lithuanian support for freedom fighters in Ukraine, in Georgia, in Belarus,  even in Hong Kong or Taiwan, was not born out of simple geopolitical calculation, but out of that instinctive recognition of ourselves in others.

Having broken free a little more than three decades ago, we still cherish the memory of that fight. Most of us are still able to remember what it was like to live without freedom. Existing but not heard. Not always remembered, often simply pushed to the margins of world history.

The fight, and the successful rebuilding of our country, put us back on the map — and gave us back our sense of agency. When we walk the streets of Vilnius, or drive around Lithuania, we see a beautiful country. And we know that WE rebuilt it. This sense of ownership is as important as the rebuilding itself. It is why we care so much about the future, because we want to protect all that our own hands and hearts made possible.

That is why we worry about what Russia might do next. 

It took us a while to start walking on our own two feet, to feel confident in ourselves. And now everything we worked for is threatened again. It is not an abstract threat — it is heart-wrenchingly real.

And that is why we cherish our partnerships.

Less than three hundred kilometres from here, in today’s Belarus, Tadeusz Kosciuszko was born. He became a symbol for an idea of freedom that does not have fixed boundaries. For Kosciuszko, freedom worked the same in our Commonwealth as it did in France or the United States. The exact same ideas are as important now as they were then. The spirit of freedom remains unchanged - The Lithuanians, Poles, French, and many other Europeans support Ukraine’s fight against the invader. French Rafales defend the Baltic skies, just as Kosciuszko designed the defences at West Point.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. I think that the defence of liberty is neverending, and we will all need to remember this in the months, years and centuries ahead.

When the President of France said that Ukraine should not be left alone while Russian forces threatened to break through the front in early 2024, I took it as a sign of how our allies might see their responsibility. They don't wait until it's too late. They don't kick the can down the road. They show no fear. If France was ready to do that for Ukraine, then we in Lithuania also felt reassured. So I thank France and her people for much more than the great honour I am receiving today.

Thank you for standing with Ukraine. Thank you for standing with Lithuania.  

Vive la Lituanie, vive la France, Vive la liberté.