Lithuania celebrates: 100 years since WWI independence

VILNIUS: European leaders gather in Vilnius on Friday to celebrate 100 years since Lithuania regained independence after World War I, but amid flaring tensions with powerful neighbour Russia.

"Lithuanians have made a long journey over the last century," European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement on the eve of the centenary. "Thanks to them, Lithuania is now a modern, democratic state in its rightful place at the heart of our European Union."

The Nato and eurozone member of 2.8 million people is today firmly anchored to the West and "protected and respected like never before" according to President Dalia Grybauskaite. Like fellow Baltic states Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania increased defence spending and welcomed troops from Nato allies after Moscow’s 2014 intervention in Ukraine but Donald Trump’s election as US president has since triggered new concerns regarding American defence commitments.

There remains some concern over a reasserted Russia, and Vilnius earlier this month accused Moscow of deploying nuclear-capable ballistic missiles to its Kaliningrad enclave on the baltic. Grybauskaite warned that the deployment in the Russian region bordering Baltic Nato members Poland and Lithuania posed a danger for "half" of Europe’s capitals.

Despite Lithuania’s solid economic growth of 3.9 percent last year, the Baltic state is beset by daily concerns over rising prices, social inequality and emigration to the richer west. "Independent Lithuania’s major achievement has been the creation of a genuinely stable democracy. Although changes in government have been frequent, and populist parties come and go, election results have never been challenged," said Vilnius University analyst Kestutis Girnius.

"The major challenge has been to develop a social conscience, so that more Lithuanians see their homeland as the place where they can best live out fulfilling lives," he told AFP. Top EU officials and the presidents of Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine, as well as Swedish Crown Princess Victoria will attend the ceremony in central Vilnius on Friday. Bells will later toll in churches across the country for the centenary.