This is the 150th most frequent Lithuanian word.
šalių
"Šalių" is the genitive plural form of "šalis," meaning "of countries" or "of sides" in English.
The word 'šalių' here is the plural possessive form of 'šalis', indicating possession (of the countries).
Šalių politiniai santykiai pastaruoju metu stipriai pagerėjo.
The political relations of the countries have significantly improved recently.
Here, 'šalių' is used in the genitive plural form to describe origins (from different countries).
Mums buvo įdomu palyginti tradicijas iš įvairių šalių.
We were interested in comparing traditions from various countries.
In this sentence, 'šalių' is the plural possessive form referring to 'sides' or 'parties', highlighting their ownership of the agreement.