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On 17 September during his official visit in Ukraine, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antanas Valionis met Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Chairman of Ukraine’s Supreme Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn, Vice Prime Minister Ivan Kirilenko and Minister of Foreign Affairs Kostiantyn Hryschenko. At the meetings with Ukrainian top-ranking officials, major attention was given to the development of relations between Ukraine and the European Union (EU) as well as prospects of the European neighbourhood policy. Lithuanian Foreign Minister underlined that Ukraine was the priority of the European neighbourhood policy and that the adoption of the Ukraine-EU action plan was an important achievement in the Ukrainian-EU relations. Implementation of the action plan would make Ukraine even closer to the European Union and would become an additional argument for the country’s future membership in the EU. Antanas Valionis underscored that the success of the EU European neighbourhood policy largely depended on the success of the EU-Ukrainian relations. At the meetings, the officials also praised intensive Lithuanian-Ukrainian political and economic cooperation and discussed prospects of the bilateral relations development after Lithuania’s accession to the EU and NATO. Lithuanian officials expressed support to Ukraine’s striving for European and transatlantic integration and urged Kyiv to continue the way of democracy and reforms. In Antanas Valionis’ words, Ukraine’s close cooperation with the European and transatlantic structures should not be only Ukraine’s but also the EU and NATO interest. During the meeting with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Antanas Valionis proposed to intensify the dialogue of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine in order to support Ukraine’s striving for European integration. Kostiantyn Hryschenko welcomed Antanas Valionis’ initiative and suggested holding a trilateral meeting in Kyiv. During the visit, Ukraine’s entering into the Word Trade Organisation was discussed as well as importance of the country’s membership in this organisation for the bilateral and multilateral economic relations. This was the first official visit of the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs to Ukraine after Lithuania’s accession to the European Union and NATO.