On 14 June in Odessa, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius, the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, the head of the Odessa Regional State Administration Maxim Stepanov and the Mayor of Odessa Gennadiy Trukhanov opened Lithuanian Days. The event will take place over the weekend.

On 17 May, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania held a solemn event in memory of Prof. Leonidas Donskis and celebrated his contribution to the spread of European values. One of the halls at the Foreign Ministry was named the ‘Europe Hall’ to remind our future generations about the values Prof. Donskis cherished.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania in cooperation with the Union of Lithuanian Art Photographers and “JCDecaux Lithuania” has announced a photography contest “My Photos of Africa”. This contest is one of the events dedicated to mark the UN’s International Decade for People of African Descent (2015–2024) and the Africa Day celebration on 25 May.

The National Prayer Breakfast with the theme “Overcoming Indifference” organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took place in Vilnius on 11 November. Its focus was to encourage people of all religions and nationalities to overcome indifference and seek peace.

On the eve of the National Memorial Day for the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews, 22 September, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Mantvydas Bekešius took part in a reading ceremony of names of victims of the Holocaust, which took place next to the recently unveiled stepping stone memorials to Dr Jacob Wigotski (Yaakov Vygodski), Dr Samuel Margolis, founders and owners of the pre-war vegetarian restaurant in Vilnius Fania and Lazar Lewando.

This year, Lithuania will celebrate the already traditional Balts’ Unity Day together with its closest neighbouring country – Latvia – on 24 September in Liepāja.