Lithuania has no plans to leave ICC despite US pressure: President

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has ruled out the prospect of his country withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC), local media reported Tuesday, following reports that Washington has urged allies to reconsider their ties with the Hague-based court.

Speaking to Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT, Nauseda said withdrawing from the ICC was not currently under discussion in Lithuania.

“No one is raising the question in the first place,” he said.

Nauseda argued that leaving the court would be difficult to justify given Lithuania’s previous support for the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“For a country that applauded the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for (Russian President) Vladimir Putin to withdraw from the ICC – I’m sorry, how would we explain that to our people?” he said.

He also noted that all 27 EU member states are parties to the ICC, questioning the rationale for Lithuania to take a different course.

“Now to talk about withdrawing from the International Criminal Court, when 27 European Union member states are part of it, is an action that is completely difficult to comprehend,” he added.

The remarks followed an LRT report last week that US officials had raised concerns with Lithuania over the ICC, particularly in the context of countries hosting American forces.

Citing sources in Washington, the broadcaster said US officials had not explicitly linked Lithuania’s continued ICC membership to the presence of American troops in the country or threatened to withdraw them.

The US has intensified its opposition to the ICC over the court’s actions concerning Israel, as well as longstanding concerns that American military personnel serving overseas could fall under its jurisdiction.

Washington’s relations with the court have also been strained over investigations into allegations of torture and war crimes involving US troops and CIA personnel in Afghanistan and secret detention facilities in Europe.

The US, which is not a party to the Rome Statute, has imposed sanctions on some ICC judges.

The ICC was established under the Rome Statute to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression when national judicial systems are unable or unwilling to genuinely pursue such cases.

Lithuania has been a party to the Rome Statute since 2003.