On 24 January, Lithuania‘s Permanent Delegation to NATO and UK‘s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) for Defence and Security Studies held a panel discussion at NATO HQ on the topic of “Building Societal Resilience against Hybrid Threats“, with renowned experts such as Elisabeth Braw, RUSI Associate Fellow, Dr Antonio Missiroli, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, Eitvydas Bajarūnas, Lithuania‘s Ambassador-at-Large for Hybrid Threats, Viktoras Daukšas, Director of Debunk.eu initiative, and Giedrius Sakalauskas, Head of “Lithuanian Elves”. The event aimed to shed light on the issue of societal resilience, which carries an enormous untapped deterrent potential.

On 23 January, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius, who is paying a working visit to Egypt, met with the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. The meeting focused on possibilities of bilateral co-operation, cultural and educational ties, and strengthening the legal basis of cooperation.

On 22 January, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius participated in the first EU-African Union ministerial meeting in Brussels. The meeting focused on strengthening cooperation at a continental level between Africa and the European Union in the areas of security, good governance, economic integration, and multilateral cooperation.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine, and the new Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan for bilateral conversations in the background of the World Economic Forum.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with the Prime Minister of Georgia, Mamuka Bakhtadze.

MEPs deplore the crackdown on dissent in Azerbaijan and urge Sudanese authorities to end violence against those protesting President al-Bashir’s regime.

On Wednesday, Parliament backed a proposal to lower tariffs in the territory of Western Sahara to the same level as Moroccan tariffs, to benefit local populations.

In the debate following the UK House of Commons’ meaningful vote, MEPs underlined that Europeans will remain united and that citizens’ rights are still the EP’s priority.

Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Seimas, expresses his deep condolences over the death of Paweł Adamowicz, Mayor of Gdańsk, Poland.

86% of the population are in favor of Lithuania’s NATO membership which is the highest percentage in the past five years. A similar number of respondents (83%) approve of NATO allies’ presence on the territory of Lithuania. The data was gathered through a public opinion poll carried out by request of the Ministry of National Defence in December 2018.