On Tuesday, March 29, at 11 a.m., President Dalia Grybauskaitė will meet with General Philip M. Breedlove, Commander of U.S. European Command.

On his visit to China, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius has attended an annual conference of the Boa Forum for Asia on the development of economic cooperation between Asia and other continents. The Prime Minister has noted at the event that cooperation between Lithuania and China has been gaining momentum, while the range of shared interests has been broadening.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow and members of the North Atlantic Council, who are ambassadors accredited by member states to NATO, to discuss the security challenges facing the Baltic countries and Europe, the increased threat of terrorism and preparations for the NATO summit due to take place in Warsaw this coming July.

Common political and security issues with Russia, Turkey, Iran, ways forward for energy cooperation, movement of skilled labour and other topics are to be discussed by MEPs and their counterparts from Eastern Partnership parliaments (Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine) in Brussels from 21.-23.March in the EURONEST parliamentary assembly, the first large scale inter-parliamentary gathering of EU and Eastern parliamentarians since the review of the EU's Neighbourhood Policy.

Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius began his working visit to China by Hong Kong meeting with the Lithuanian community, Lithuanian Chamber of Commerce and local business representatives.

Parliament's civil liberties committee discusses the proposed new strategy to restore Schengen with the European Commission on Monday 21 March. With efforts to strengthen the EU's external borders ongoing and following the deal struck with Turkey at the EU summit on 17-18 March, the Commission is keen to remove the temporary border controls imposed by several member states within the Schengen zone as soon as possible. Follow the discussion live on our website.

At the meeting with the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on 18 March in Berlin, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius noted that Lithuania aimed to develop strategic relations with Germany, which played an important role in ensuring security in the region and the Baltic States.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius and OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, participated in the presentation of OECD's economic assessment of Lithuania, preceded by the bilateral meeting, where the Head of Government emphasized Lithuania's progress and further accession arrangements.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė is attending a European Council meeting which focuses on the EU's Annual Growth Survey and the progress of member states in implementing the European Commission's economic and social recommendations for 2015.