On August 11 Minister of National Defence Raimundas Karoblis and Chief of Defence of Lithuania Lieutenant General Jonas Vytautas Žukas together with the President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė in Rukla (Jonava district) met with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte who arrived to Lithuania to meet with soldiers of his country serving in the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battlegroup.

The modernisation and reconstruction of military infrastructure in training grounds of Pabradė and Gaižiūnai of the Lithuanian Armed Forces (LAF), in the Mumaičiai military territory, and in the Air Base of the Lithuanian Air Force in Šiauliai is gaining momentum. According to plans, about 50 objects of various infrastructure are to be installed in 2017. Some of the objects that were commenced in July 2016 have been already completed, in some of them activities have been just launched or are intensely carried out in cooperation with some of the Lithuanian companies.

Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis has visited the Inčukalns gas storage in Latvia, as part of the Baltic Prime Ministers’ meeting on LNG issues, hosted by the Prime Minister of Latvia.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte. After the bilateral meeting, the President and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands visited Dutch soldiers serving at the NATO’s enhanced forward presence battalion.

On 10 August 2017, Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Seimas, met with Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia. The meeting of the Speakers took place in Jūrmala, Latvia, on the eve of the meeting of the three Baltic Prime Ministers in Inčukalns, Latvia, and Pärnu, Estonia, in the run-up to the NB8 Conference of the Speakers in Lillehammer, Norway.

On Friday, at the invitation by the Prime Minister of Latvia, the Baltic Heads of Government will pay a visit to Inčukalns underground gas storage facility. Following the visit, the final agreement will be sought on the Baltic regional LNG infrastructure. Earlier on, the Baltic Prime Ministers have also went to Paldiski, where an LNG terminal is planned to be constructed, and paid a visit to Klaipėda LNG terminal.

On 9 August, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Darius Skusevičius met with Claudio Graziano, Chief of the Italian Army, who is visiting Lithuania. Lithuania’s Foreign Vice-Minister thanked Italy for its role in strengthening security of the Baltic States and underlined Lithuania’s readiness to continue to actively contribute to international efforts to counter terrorism, illegal migration and other threats to European security.

On August 8 Defence Attachés of France in Lithuania rotated during a ceremony at the Ministry of National Defence. At the end of the diplomatic service in Lithuania outgoing Defence Attaché Lieutenant Colonel Alain Moulia was awarded the Medal of Merit for strengthening bilateral Lithuanian-French defence cooperation by Vice Minister of National Defence Vytautas Umbrasas. Vice Minister wished a successful term of office to incoming Defence Attaché Colonel Stéphane Loechleiter and luck in continuing the Lithuanian-French defence cooperation that significantly intensified.

On August 3 rotations and command of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) Battalion Battle Group changed over at a ceremony at the Lithuanian Great Hetman Jonušas Radvila Training Regiment in Rukla.

On August 1-2 Minister of National Defence R.Karoblis met with delegations of U.S. Congressmen led by Rob Bishop and Joe Wilson.