President Dalia Grybauskaitė together with 51 European and Asian leaders attended the ASEM summit in Brussels. This year the biennial forum focused on the theme “Global Partners for Global Challenges.”

On October 17 outgoing Defence Attaché of Georgia Col Archil Petremgvdlishvili was farewelled at a ceremony at the Ministry of National Defence.

Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Seimas, while on his official visit to Israel, met with Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, Speaker of the Knesset. In addition to the close inter-parliamentary relations, they discussed the efforts to consolidate the intergovernmental cooperation in the “Government-to-Government” format.

“Our citizens gain from living in a world with more democracies and fewer authoritarian regimes” said President Tajani at a high-level conference on electoral observation.

“I invite Eastern Partnership countries to continue following European Union affairs, to be a part of those processes, actively engage in EU initiatives and projects in security and defence area. I also encourage Eastern Partnership countries that aspire for European integration to stay true to European vision and follow the chosen path, Minister of National Defence Raimundas Karoblis said welcoming participants of international security experts conference Eastern Partners in European Security and Defence: Closer Cooperation to Overcome Common Challenges on October 9.

Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis has noted in his meeting with Head of Government of Japan Shinzō Abe that Japan is the most important political and economic partner of Lithuania in Asia. The two countries share common values and positions on global matters and have mutual interest to develop bilateral cooperation.

On 9 October, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius met with representatives of the Armenian authorities and non-governmental organizations at the Ministerial Conference of the International Organisation of La Francophonie in Yerevan. Meetings with the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, the Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ara Babloyan and the Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan focused on recent developments in Armenia, the country's cooperation with the European Union, the situation in the South Caucasus, and other relevant issues.

With a view to improving the investment environment and speeding up the introduction of innovation in public transport, as well as in response to the encouragement by the European Commission to effectively address transport congestion and ecological problems and enhance the living conditions for people in Lithuanian cities by using environmentally-friendly transport, the Seimas adopted the law on the development of the metropolitan railway system. The law (draft No XIIP-2375(3)) was adopted by 62 votes in favour, with 6 votes against and 31 abstentions.

MEPs will call for an investigation into the misuse of data by Facebook, vote on measures to reduce plastic waste and announce the shortlist for the 2018 Sakharov Prize.

Cleaner cars, more European films on streaming services and concerns about the state of rule of law were among the highlight of this week’s plenary session.