Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys at the Critical Minerals Framework Memorandum of Understanding Signing Ceremony

SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you. Thank you, all, for being here today. And I'm excited to sign this framework, which highlights the strong cooperation and partnership between the United States and Lithuania. As the council president - incoming council president of the European Union, it's good to know that the presidency will be held by a country that prioritizes economic security.

Supply chain - secure supply and processing of critical minerals is essential to the 21st century economy. I think this has been talked about. It's essential to the economy; it's essential to our defenses as well. And Lithuania's - for example, they're a global leader in photonics, photonic power. So - they're a photonic power, so this rigorous - rigorous investment screening that protects it. So this is a very positive thing. Lithuania and the United States are going to jointly identify as part of all those priority projects and mobilize government and the private sector to finance them within six months.

So this is a very positive development. We're very happy and pleased that you're here as our guest today and to sign this together, and look forward to the wonderful things we're going to be able to do in partnership on this critical component of both economic and national security. So thank you very much. We appreciate you. Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER BUDRYS: Thank you very much for this opportunity. For our government, Government of Lithuania, this is the number two priority in our foreign policy, next to the hard security, to meet the challenges within the field of economy, economic security, and to build the strategic partnership with United States as the leading power in the world in building the resilient and strong supply chains.

And we are very practical in this approach. We made this decision after thorough presentations with our businesses. So they are looking forward, and we expect that it will end up with the big projects that will build security and prosperity to our countries. Thank you very much.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you. All right, let's sign.

(The Memorandum of Understanding was signed.)

SECRETARY RUBIO: You want to - we'll do one closed and one open. How's that?

FOREIGN MINISTER BUDRYS: Oh. (Laughter.)

SECRETARY RUBIO: It says the same thing in both of them.

Great. Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER BUDRYS: Yeah.

(Applause.)

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