President Will Meet With Lithuania Prime Minister

President Bush will meet on Thursday at the White House with Lithuanian Prime Minister Kazimiera Prunskiene, the White House announced today.

She is visiting the United States on a “private visit” and the President’s decision to meet with her does not change the U.S. policy of not recognizing the rebellious Baltic republic, presidential press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said.

Still, the session represents Bush’s first meeting with an elected Lithuanian official since that nation declared its independence from the Soviet Union last March 11.

“She’s here, she’s in the country. She can give us a firsthand account of what’s happening there, what their attitude is, what the status of the embargoes are, what’s the impact of the current situation, the pressures being put on them,” Fitzwater said.

He called it “a rare opportunity to get a firsthand analysis of the situation.”

Although the United States has never formally recognized the 1940 incorporation of Lithuania and the other Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia into the Soviet Union, it has not formally recognized its newly asserted independence.

Instead, Bush has urged Lithuanian and Kremlin officials to work out their differences peacefully.

He has also held off on imposing any economic sanctions against the Soviet Union, saying he remains hopeful for a settlement of the crisis.

Fitzwater, asked how Bush will address Prunskiene during her visit, said the President will probably call her “prime minister,” since that’s her title in Lithuania.

However, he said, the name the President calls her by does not alter U.S. policy.