Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius has welcomed Lithuania's diplomatic victory: the United Nations General Assembly in New York elected Lithuania by absolute majority of votes (187) to serve as non-permanent member on the Security Council for the term 2014-2015.

On 21 October in Luxembourg the Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius will attend the Foreign Affairs Council meeting where preparations will be carried out for the 3rd Eastern Partnership Summit, to be held on 28 and 29 November in Vilnius.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė will meet with the President of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, on Monday October 21, at 11:30 a.m. This is the first visit of the current Palestinian leader to Lithuania.

Foreign affairs MEPs praised Commissioner Stefan Füle's approach of "fundamentals first" in assessing countries' readiness for EU membership, in a debate with him on Wednesday. They also backed the Commission's fifth recommendation to the Council to open accession negotiations with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM).

At the Consulate General of Lithuania in New York on 15 October, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius, who is paying a visit to the U.S., presented priorities for the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council to representatives of the foreign diplomatic community from the EU Member States and Eastern Partnership countries, EU diplomats and representatives of the U.S. Department of State. Later, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister delivered a lecture on this topic at the City University of New York (CUNY).

At the Wilton Park conference "The Eastern Partnership: moving ahead" on 14 October, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Radosław Sikorski, and David Lidington, the UK's Minister of State of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, issued a joint statement emphasizing the important role of the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius in strengthening the EU's relations with Eastern European partners.

MEPs meet in committee and prepare this month's second plenary session taking place in Strasbourg on 21-24 October. On Monday the women's rights and legal affairs committees vote on a proposal to ensure gender balance on the boards of EU-listed companies. On Thursday the consumer protection committee votes on two draft reports to make it easier to detect unsafe products. Also on the agenda are rules for failing banks, seats of EU institutions, support for poorer regions and NSA surveillance.

On 10 October, during the informal Transatlantic Dinner in Brussels, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Lithuania to NATO Ambassador Kęstutis Jankauskas and the Representative to the Political and Security Committee Ambassador Darius Pranckevičius stressed the importance of strengthening the transatlantic link in the changing global security environment and the facing of new challenges.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė on Saturday, 12 October extended congratulations, on behalf of the Lithuanian people and on her own behalf, to His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain on the occasion of the National Day of Spain.

The climate of impunity surrounding EU member states' complicity in the CIA's secret "rendition" and detention programmes has allowed violations of fundamental rights to continue unchecked, as revealed by mass surveillance programmes run by the US and some EU member states, said the European Parliament on Thursday. MEPs want Parliament's right to investigate such violations in the EU to be reinforced, and again urge EU institutions and member states to investigate the CIA operations in depth.