Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jose W. Fernandez will travel to Vilnius, Lithuania, May 6-7, 2024, to participate in the high-level Building Resilient Economy and Resisting Economic Coercion (REC) conference hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania. The conference aims to promote cooperation among like-minded partners to address economic coercion. Topics of discussion will include collaborative policy responses needed to counter the coercive abuse of trade ties, including providing concrete support to targeted countries. Under Secretary Fernandez will join Gabrielius Landsbergis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, and Ono Keiichi, Senior Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan along with others on a panel to discuss the rise of economic coercion. U.S. representatives will share how we have been able to support various countries, including Lithuania, in mitigating economic coercion through both U.S. support and assistance with identifying alternative, viable economic solutions for supply chain realignment.
The first day of the conference will be public and consist of high-level panel discussions. To learn more about media opportunities and press coverage, please visit the event webpage: https://www.urm.lt/default/en/economic-diplomacy/trade-and-economic-relations/external-trade-policy/international-high-level-conference-building-resilient-economy-and-resisting-economic-coercion . To stay up to date, follow Under Secretary Fernandez on X: @State_E, LinkedIn: @State-E, and Facebook: @StateDeptE . For media inquiries, please contact E_Communications@state.gov.
