Algirdas Saudargas

Algirdas Saudargas (born April 17, 1948) is a Lithuanian politician and the signatory of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. He was the first foreign minister of Lithuania after it regained independence.

Biography In 1966, he completed his secondary education at Saulė High School in Kaunas. He then went on to graduate from the Kaunas Institute of Medicine in 1972 with a degree in biophysics. Between 1972 and 1977, he held the position of junior research fellow at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Physics and Mathematics. From 1977 to 1982, he worked as a senior lecturer at the Lithuanian Academy of Agriculture, and from 1982 to 1986 he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Kaunas Branch of the Institute for Biological Research of Chemical Compounds. From 1986 to 1990, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Central Research Laboratory, Neurosurgery Laboratory of the Kaunas Institute of Medicine.

Political career Since 1988 Saudargas has been an active member of Sąjūdis. In 1989 he was one of the re-establishers of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party. In 1990 he led the Christian Democrat list in the Supreme Council elections and was elected to the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania.

He served as a Minister of Foreign Affairs from April 11, 1990, to December 17, 1992, and again from December 4, 1996, to October 30, 2000. In his first term as foreign minister Saudargas has contributed to Lithuania's international recognition and involvement in international organisations.

From 2009 until 2019 Saudargas was elected to the European Parliament.