President Dalia Grybauskaitė met with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to discuss preparations for the NATO summit in Warsaw and the situation in Ukraine.

Nadiya Savchenko is free and back in her country. The Ukrainian pilot was released today from a Russian prison - in exchange for the release of two Russian prisoners, in an overdue gesture of human compassion.

On 24 May in Brussels, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Raimundas Karoblis took part in the EU’s General Affairs Council meeting, which prepared the European Council of 28 and 29 June and focused on migrants’ integration.

On 23-24 May, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius is participating in the first World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, which is dedicated to humanitarian assistance. The purpose of the summit is to take concrete steps to improve the humanitarian system, so that it will be able to address the mounting humanitarian needs of the 21st century.

On 18 May, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Neris Germanas participated in the 126th session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which was held in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, as the country ended its term of the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

In the NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Brussels, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius and his Latvian and Estonian counterparts met with the United States Secretary of State John Kerry.

This year, the G7 summit will take place from 26 to 27 May in Ise-Shima (Japan). The European Union will be represented by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk.

An EgyptAir plane from Paris to Cairo crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. It is not yet clear what exactly happened to the Airbus 320.

On 17 May 2016, the European Union and Turkmenistan held the eighth round of their Human Rights Dialogue in Brussels.

While on his visit to Tallinn on 13 May 2016, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius awarded the decoration of honour “Lithuanian Diplomacy Star” to Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of the Republic of Estonia, whose term of office finishes later this year. This decoration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania has been awarded to the Head of State of Estonia for his merits in strengthening relations between Lithuania and Estonia.