On 22 August, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius visited Turkey, where he met with the Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yıldırım, the Speaker of the Parliament İsmail Kahraman and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. The head of Lithuania’s diplomacy is the first Foreign Minister of the EU and NATO countries to visit Turkey after the July 15 failed coup attempt.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė will attend the forum dedicated to the Adriatic-Baltic-Black Sea Initiative at the invitation of Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, today, on August 25, in Dubrovnik.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden. The President of Latvia, Raimonds Vējonis, and the President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, also attended the meeting.

A World Trade Organisation (WTO) panel today declared illegal the Russian import ban on live pigs, fresh pork and other pig products from the EU in the light of international trade rules.

Over past six months roughly 200 combat and medlift Mercedes-Benz GD vehicles, trucks, and other military vehicles were brought from the Netherlands to Lithuania to supplement and update the fleet of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. On August 18 a meeting of Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas and Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Lithuania HE Bert van der Lingen was held in Kaunas to celebrate the successful defence cooperation between the two countries.

On 17 August, the Ambassador of Lithuania to Latvia Artūras Žurauskas presented his letters of credence to the President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis.

On 17 August, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius met with the new Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates Yousif Eisa Hassan Eisa AlSabri, who was accredited to Lithuania. The Ambassador conveyed an invitation to Lithuania’s Foreign Minister to the Sir Bani Yas Forum, an annual high-level international gathering organised by the U.A.E. in November.

Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas congratulated Major General Vitalijus Vaikšnoras upon assuming the duties of the Chief of the Joint Staff on August 16 and wished him success in enhancing combat readiness of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The Minister thanked the outgoing Chief of the Joint Staff Brigadier General Vilmantas Tamošaitis for excellent performance and wished success in developing cooperation between the Lithuanian Armed Forces and the Bundeswehr in his new position as the Defence Attaché of the Republic of Lithuania in Germany.

On 12 August, during the round-table discussion on Georgia‘s European and Euro-Atlantic integration, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius emphasized that Lithuania actively supports Georgia because Lithuania’s priority is long-term, values-based policy.