Lithuania is making progress towards normalising relations with communist China, Juozas Olekas, speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, said, BNS reports. Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said that Lithuania’s position on China remained unchanged, stressing the need for a unified European approach as part of the EU’s common foreign and security policy. He warned that…
Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry has proposed expanding national sanctions against Russian and Belarusian citizens, BNS reports. Under the proposed draft legislation, Russian and Belarusian individuals and organisations would be barred from public cultural or sports events in Lithuania if they have operated in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, directly or indirectly support the war against Ukraine, or…
Three parliamentary groups in Lithuania will sign an agreement on forming a new coalition government on 18 June 2026, BNS reports. The coalition will consist of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (LSDP), the Union of Democrats for Lithuania (DSVL), and the joint parliamentary group of the Lithuanian Union of Farmers and Greens (LVZS) and…
Estonia ranks the highest in the Baltic States on the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Global Innovation Index in 2025, Labs of Latvia reports. Estonia ranks 16th on the global index, followed by Lithuania on 33rd place and Latvia on 41st place. The Global Innovation Index ranks the world’s 139 most innovative economies based on…
The Baltic Assembly has announced its annual awards in arts, literature, and science, LSM reports. The prize in the arts category went to Latvian conductor Kaspars Putnins for the Latvian Radio Choir’s concert programme, The Dream Stream. The literature prize was awarded to Lithuanian author and translator Tomas Venclova for his latest poetry collection, Už…
Latvia’s Ministry of Education and Science has proposed reducing the number of advanced-level centralised exams in secondary school by one, LETA reports. Under the ministry’s proposal, graduates would be required to take five instead of six mandatory exams. At the moment, high school graduates in Latvia need to take five compulsory exams: Latvian, a foreign…
A team of researchers at Estonia’s University of Tartu (TÜ), Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), and the Institute of the Estonian Language (EKI) will teach the Estonian language and culture to large language models (LLMs), ERR reports. The project led by TÜ’s Institute of Computer Science will train open-source LLMs to speak Estonian more fluently…
Lithuania’s Deputy Minister of Economy and Innovation, Karolis Zemaitis, visited Taiwan on 3-6 September 2024, ELTA reported. During his visit, the minister met with officials at Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs and Ministry of Economic Affairs as well as with potential investors. He had meetings with representatives of several local banks and major companies in…
Estonia has officially joined the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) as the organisation’s 24th member state, Estonian World reports. Estonia applied for CERN membership in 2018. Estonia signed the first cooperation agreement with CERN in 1996 and gained associate member status in 2021. As a full member state, Estonia will have voting rights in…
