On 12 January 2018, at 9 am, Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Seimas, met in his office with Members of the Presidium of the Baltic Assembly: Prof. Jānis Vucāns and Dr Romualds Ražuks. The meeting discussed the activities of the Baltic Assembly and the key matters under consideration, including energy and security cooperation and the Rail Baltica project.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with the participants of the traditional Snow Meeting to discuss geopolitical challenges, European and transatlantic security.

On Saturday, January 13, Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis will receive the visit of the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Office of the Government.

The following joint statement was issued by President Jean-Claude Juncker and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki following their working dinner in Brussels on 9 January 2017:

New rules to better equip EU countries to freeze and confiscate criminal assets across the bloc will be voted by the civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee on Thursday. The new law aims to improve the fight against the financing of terrorism and organised crime.

The Lithuanian and Polish prime ministers had a telephone conversation on Friday to discuss bilateral relations and cooperation in the European Union.

There is no evidence of poorer quality of food products supplied to countries in Central and Eastern Europe, says Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, European commissioner from Lithuania in charge of health and food safety.

In 2018 the total of over 420 Lithuanian soldiers with vehicles and weaponry will continue the standby in multinational rapid response forces –NATO Response Force (NRF), NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) and the generated UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF).

On 4 January, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius received the outgoing Ambassador of China to Lithuania Wei Ruixing. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister thanked the Chinese Ambassador for his efforts to build and strengthen the relationship between the two countries during his tenure in Lithuania.

“We highly appreciate the lasting cooperation between Lithuania and Croatia. UNPROFOR in Croatia was Lithuania’s first international military deployment after the restoration of independence. For four years Lithuania soldiers had been serving together with Croatian troops in the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Ghor province, Afghanistan. Croatia understands the challenges and threats faced by our region, and it is illustrated perfectly by Croatia’s decision to join the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group in Lithuania,” R. Karoblis underscored Lithuania’s appreciation of Croatia’s contribution to enhanced deterrence in the region at a meeting with Croatian Minister of Defence and Vice Prime Minister of Croatia Damir Krstičević on a visit in Lithuania.