March 10th, Lithuania's former Ambassador to the U.S., diplomat Žygimantas Pavilionis presented a lecture, "New Challenges for Lithuania" to students at Mykolas Romeris University (MRU).

Public Administration Institute Prof. Saulius Nefas introduced Pavilionis listing his numerous achievements, most recently serving as Lithuania's Ambassador to the U.S. and Mexico.

Pavilionis discussed global politics including threats from Russia, the situation in Ukraine, Georgia and touched on demographic changes in the U.S. where Spanish, in some parts, has overtaken English as the spoken tongue.

In addition, he discussed the upcoming referendum in the United Kingdom to determine whether Britain should remain in the European Union (EU).

He hoped good reason would prevail and voters in the U.K. would decide to remain in the EU.

Pavilionis, now Ambassador at Large for Europe's East, said he is preparing to take part in the upcoming Seimas parliament elections.

The lecture marked Lithuania's Restoration of Independence holiday, which is celebrated on March 11th annually.