Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus leaves for Rome Friday afternoon for a Saturday meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican, after which the president will head to Brussels for a top-level political forum.
The president's press service reported that Adamkus will discuss international cooperation with Vatican, the ties between the state of Lithuania and the Roman Catholic Church, social and moral questions.
From Italy the president will travel to Belgium where he will attend a forum in Brussels.
According to the press release, the Brussels forum is an annual meeting of top-level most influential US and European political leaders and intellectuals, which discusses the most significant challenges of international politics on both sides of the Atlantic. The forum will be attended by heads of states, top-ranking officials from European Union institutions and states, members of the US government, congressmen, parliamentarians, academics and representatives of authoritative international media.
Together with other high-ranking officials from the US, Russia and Europe, the Lithuanian president will attend a discussion within the framework of the Brussels forum titled Russia 's a Global State Back on Stage? and will discuss modern Russia's role in international politics.
This year's forum will focus primarily on strengthening and expanding the European-US transatlantic dialogue.
Adamkus will return to Vilnius on Sunday.
