Dovilė Šakalienė, Defence Minister of Lithuania: Uncertain times for Europe

Dovilė Šakalienė, Defence Minister of Lithuania: Uncertain times for Europe

BBC Defence Correspondent Jonathan Beale speaks to Dovilė Šakalienė, Lithuania’s Defence Minister.

The Baltic nation, along with its neighbours Latvia and Estonia, share a border with Russia, and have nervously watched the invasion of Ukraine, fearing they could be next.

All three countries have had turbulent relationships with their much larger neighbour, Russia. They were annexed by the Soviet Union during the Second World War, and were subject to decades of rule from Moscow up until the end of the Cold War.

In 2004, Lithuania joined both the European Union and Nato, and just over a decade later, adopted the Euro as its currency. But despite looking westwards, the country has always kept one eye on developments over its eastern border in Russia.

Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014 set off alarm bells in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, and when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia began in 2022, Lithuania and its neighbours began fearing and preparing for the worst..

Presenter: Jonathan Beale Producer: Ben Cooper Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Avsnitt(1827)

Cheng Siwei - Former Vice Chairman, Standing Committee, NPC, China

Cheng Siwei - Former Vice Chairman, Standing Committee, NPC, China

This year - 2012 - is the Chinese Year of the Dragon and Chinese workers certainly seem to have fire in their belly.There's growing discontent amongst the workforce whose labour fuelled the country's economic miracle. They're angry that export-led growth has largely passed them by - whilst filling state coffers and enriching some beyond their wildest dreams. Zeinab Badawi speaks to Cheng Siwei - one of China's most influential economists. How much of a threat is economic uncertainty and social unrest to China's prosperity and stability?

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Olli Rehn - European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs

Olli Rehn - European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs

Sarah Montague is in Brussels to talk to the man with the unenviable job of finding a way out of Europe's financial crisis. He is Olli Rehn, Europe's Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs. It's nearly two years since the Greek crisis first blew up; and in that time seven heads of Eurozone governments have been replaced; there have been at least 15 European summits; and any number of plans; and yet, Greece is still on the verge of defaulting and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned this coming year will "undoubtedly" be harder than the last. What has been achieved and are we any closer to resolving the crisis?(Image: European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn. Credit: Reuters)

11 Jan 201223min

Dr Devi Shetty - Indian heart surgeon

Dr Devi Shetty - Indian heart surgeon

Stephen Sackur speaks to a brilliant heart surgeon - veteran of more than 30,000 operations - but his growing international reputation rests less on his medical skill, more on his business brain. He wants to do for major surgery what Henry Ford did for the motor car - make it affordable for the masses, by means of mass production. He's building what he calls medical cities across India and beyond - but can this vision of delivering a public good for private profit really change healthcare around the world?

9 Jan 201223min

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