On August 20 Minister of National Defence Juozas Olekas took part in a formal inauguration of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (NATO StratCom COE) in Riga, President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė also delivered an address at the event.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has spoken favourably about the search and seizure carried out by the Special Investigation Service (STT) at the Lithuanian Agricultural and Food Market Regulation Agency (RRA).

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with Latvian President Raimonds Vējonis. The Presidents discussed bilateral relations and topical EU issues, the implementation of energy projects, the strengthening of the security and defense capacities of the Baltic countries as well as the tasks and objectives of the officially opened NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence in Riga. The Presidents also exchanged views on preparations for the NATO summit scheduled for next July in Warsaw.

August 20, new Defence Attaché of Turkey Lieutenant Colonel Necmedin Dalkiran will be accredited to Lithuania at a ceremony at the Ministry of National Defence.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė will leave for Latvia on a working visit on Thursday, 20 August.

On 17 August, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius thanked the outgoing Ambassador of Greece Michael-Efstratios C. Daratzikis for his contribution to the development of the bilateral relationship and expressed hope that in the future the two countries would continue to foster their friendly relationship based on shared values and solidarity.

The European Commission has found that a £50 million (around €71 million) grant that the UK authorities intend to provide for designing a SABRE space launcher engine is in line with EU state aid rules. SABRE is a research and development (R&D) project carried out by UK company Reaction Engines Limited (REL). The project aims to develop an engine that would power a reusable airframe to launch satellites into low Earth orbit, significantly reducing the costs of such space missions. The Commission found that the measure fosters aerospace R&D in Europe while limiting distortions of competition in the Single Market.

On behalf of the European Commission, I would like to welcome today's Eurogroup agreement on a new three-year ESM programme for Greece.

Prime Minister of Lithuania Algirdas Butkevicius says that pensions in 2016 will grow taking into account financial capabilities, but without increasing the State Social Insurance Fund's (SoDra) deficit, which tin the first half of 2015 amounted to EUR 152.8 million.

On 11 August in Pretoria, Ambassador of Lithuania Sigutė Jakštonytė presented her letters of credence to the President of the Republic of South Africa Jacob Zuma.