Damon Wilson’s Remarks to the Lithuanian Seimas Conference on Shared Freedom

 

NED President and CEO Damon Wilson delivered video remarks at the Lithuanian Seimas conference, “Celebrating Our Shared Freedom: The 250th Anniversary of the American Independence – International Conference on Freedom in the Western Hemisphere,” on June 15, 2026, in Vilnius, Lithuania.

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Dear friends,

It is an honor to join you today, and to do so in a spirit of deep admiration for Lithuania, for the Lithuanian people, and for the extraordinary friendship between Lithuania and the United States.

As America prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of its founding, we are reminded that the American experiment was never only a national story.

From the beginning, it advanced a powerful and universal idea: that freedom belongs to all people, that legitimate government rests on the consent of the governed, and that the basic freedoms of speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition are not gifts from the state, but rights inherent to human dignity.

Those ideas have shaped America’s own journey. But they have also inspired freedom movements far beyond our shores.

They have connected generations of people who, in very different times and places, have insisted on the same essential truth: no nation has the right to erase another people’s sovereignty, no regime has the right to silence its citizens, and no dictator has the right to decide the future of a free people.

That is why the relationship between Lithuania and the United States is so meaningful.

It is not only a diplomatic relationship. It is a relationship rooted in memory, sacrifice, shared conviction, and a common understanding that freedom is never guaranteed by geography, treaties, or history alone. It must be defended, renewed, and expanded by every generation.

That conviction has long defined America’s relationship with Lithuania.

Since establishing diplomatic relations in 1922, the United States never recognized the Soviet Union’s forcible annexation of Lithuania. It kept Lithuania’s diplomatic mission open in Washington throughout the years of occupation — a powerful statement that sovereignty stolen by force would not be accepted as legitimate.

For decades, Lithuania carried the cause of freedom through occupation, repression, and exile. It kept alive the idea that national identity and sovereignty could not be erased, and that the human desire for liberty could not be defeated by force.

And when Lithuania regained its independence, it did something remarkable: it did not turn inward. It did not treat freedom as something achieved once and then safely possessed.

Lithuania became a seat of freedom for others.

It carries weight in Europe’s East, where the work of building a Europe whole, free, and at peace remains unfinished.

The enlargement of NATO and the European Union, the accession of the Baltic states, and the reunification of much of Europe after the Cold War were among the great strategic achievements of the democratic world.

The courage displayed by the Lithuanian people proved that nations once trapped behind an Iron Curtain could become free, prosperous, secure, and inspiration and a refuge for others seeking inalienable freedoms.

But today we are reminded that this work is not complete.

Russia’s renewed aggression against Ukraine is not only a war against one country. It is a war against the principle that free people have the right to choose their own future.

And Ukraine’s fight is therefore Europe’s fight. It is Lithuania’s fight. It is America’s fight. It is the fight of all who believe that freedom must not stop at the border of the already free.

The same is true in Belarus. The people of Belarus have shown extraordinary courage in the face of dictatorship, imprisonment, exile, and repression.

They remind us that the freedom struggle in Europe’s East did not end with the fall of the Berlin Wall, or with Baltic independence. It continues today in the streets, prisons, newsrooms, churches, civic groups, and homes of those who refuse to surrender their dignity.

Lithuania has stood with Ukraine not out of charity, but out of strategic clarity. It has stood with Belarusian democrats as a matter of principle.

Lithuania understands that the security of Vilnius is tied to the freedom of Kyiv, and that the freedom of Kyiv is tied to the future of Minsk.

This is what it means to think strategically about the future of freedom around the world.

And that same clarity is needed across the Atlantic, in our own hemisphere.

At first glance, the struggles of Ukraine and Belarus may seem distant from those of Venezuela and Cuba. But Lithuania’s history teaches us that they are part of the same struggle.

Lithuanians know what it means for a nation’s sovereignty to be denied.

They know what it means for citizens to be told that their voices do not matter, that their history can be rewritten, that their future can be decided by force.

They know what it means for dissidents, journalists, religious leaders, artists, workers, and civic activists to carry a nation’s freedom through long years of repression.

That is why Lithuania’s solidarity with the people of Venezuela and Cuba is so powerful.

In Venezuela, a courageous democratic movement has endured intimidation, repression, exile, and the theft of democratic choice.

Venezuelans have shown the world that even after years of hardship, the demand for free elections, accountable government, and national renewal cannot be silenced.

In Cuba, generations of dissidents, activists, and ordinary citizens have continued to insist on the right to live freely.

The Cuban people’s persistence is one of the longest-running struggles for freedom in our hemisphere. It deserves not only American attention, but democratic solidarity from around the world.

So, when Lithuania stands with Cuba and Venezuela, it is not simply expressing sympathy for distant peoples.

It is applying the lessons of its own freedom struggle.

It is saying that dictatorship should never be normalized. That stolen elections should never be accepted as permanent. That political prisoners should never be forgotten.

And that small nations and courageous citizens deserve the solidarity of the free world.

As we look toward America’s 250th anniversary, this is one of the most important lessons we can carry forward: the ideals that animated America’s founding remain unfinished business around the world.

From Ukraine to Belarus, from Venezuela to Cuba, these courageous democrats are advancing the same foundational freedoms that gave rise to the American experiment.

Their struggle reminds us that America’s founding ideals are not relics of the past. They are living commitments. They demand courage. They demand solidarity. And they demand action.

So as America approaches its 250th anniversary, let us treat this moment not only as a commemoration, but as a call to action.

Let us remember that the struggles of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Venezuelans, Cubans, and so many others—including ultimately Russians—these struggles are connected by a simple human truth: people everywhere want to live without fear, choose their leaders, speak their minds, worship freely, gather openly, and shape their own future.

And let us remember that when Lithuania and the United States stand together, we do more than honor our shared past. We renew the promise of freedom for the next generation.

Thank you.

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