Bagis, Eker attend national day of Lithuania

A reception was organized to mark the national day of Lithuania at the Lithuanian Embassy in Ankara over the weekend, which was attended by Turkey's Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis, Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Mehdi Eker, Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy leader responsible for foreign affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu and ambassadors of EU-member countries. Speaking at the reception, Lithuania's Ambassador in Ankara Kestusis Kudzmanas said that his country would seek to open three new chapters to help accelerate Turkey's EU accession process. For his part, Bagis said that opening of chapter 22 to membership talks in Turkey's EU membership process during Lithuania's rotating presidency of the EU would refer to extending an olive branch to Turkey and upgrading the negotiation process.