On 16 January in Brussels, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius attended the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council meeting, which focused on the EU’s foreign policy agenda, as well as discussed Syria and the Middle East peace process.

On January 16, by invitation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius, meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of the UK, Estonia, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden was held in Brussels, with the security issues in the Northern and Baltic region on the agenda.

EU border force Frontex, estimates that the number of people landing on Europe's shores fell by two-thirds in 2016. A drop in arrivals on Greece’s islands contrasts however with record numbers of migrants reaching Italy. With over 5,000 people killed or missing, the UN reports that 2016 was the deadliest year ever for migrants crossing the Mediterranean. In meetings with Commission, Council and UNHCR representatives on 12 January, civil liberties committee MEPs shared their views on the crisis.

On 13 January 2017, the Commission has proposed aid to the United Kingdom worth €60 million from the EU Solidarity Fund following the floods in 2015.

An informal Snow Meeting brought together Lithuanian and foreign security policy experts for the tenth time in Paunguriai, the district of Trakai, to discuss the main challenges facing the transatlantic community today and responses to them.

President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with General Philip M. Breedlove, former Commander of U.S. European Command, as well as with influential foreign and security policy experts, participants of the traditional Snow Meeting.

On January 9 Minister of National Defence Raimundas Karoblis met with Ambassador of Israel in Lithuania HE Amir Maimon. The officials discussed defence cooperation between the two countries, the Minister also conveyed condolences over the terrorist attack in Jerusalem of January 8 where a terrorist drove a truck into a group of Israeli soldiers.

Roman Herzog was a German politician, who served as President of Germany from 1994 to 1999. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he was the first President of Germany to be elected to office after the reunification of Germany. Prior to his election to the presidency of Germany, he served as a judge of the Federal Constitutional Court, and he was the President of the Constitutional Court from 1987 to his election as President of Germany.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Lithuania and Israel, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin have issued a joint statement which reaffirms bilateral bonds of cooperation based on sincere friendship and true understanding.

From January to the end of June 2017, Malta assumes the rotating presidency of the Council of Ministers of the European Union, for the first time since its accession to the EU in 2004. It will take over the Presidency at a difficult period in European integration. In this situation, the Maltese Presidency will have to find consensus and achieve agreements in the Council and also with the European Parliament.