The Lithuanian government has decided to cancel the agreement with Belarus on the main principles of cross-border cooperation due to the current geopolitical situation.
Through a statement issued on Wednesday, January 18, the Ministry of the Interior of Lithuania said that such a decision was taken due to the political situation in the Republic of Belarus after the elections that took place in the summer of 2020, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Such a decision of the government was made taking into account the political situation in the Republic of Belarus after the elections of 2020, asserting that the same were rigged, and the instrumentalisation of migration used by the Lukashenko regime against EU countries and its involvement in the war against Ukraine.
“Implementation of a bilateral intergovernmental agreement with Belarus is not possible in the current geopolitical situation and will not be possible in the near future,” Minister of the Interior Agnė Bilotaitė pointed out.
According to the Ministry, in October 2020, the Lithuanian government also suspended payments to Belarus and its partners for ongoing projects of the cross-border cooperation program.
In addition, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, according to the order of Minister Bilotaita, activities related to cooperation with Belarusian institutions and organisations have been stopped.
In September last year, Lithuania also presented a proposal for the conclusion of bilateral international agreements and inter-institutional agreements with Belarus.
In this regard, Minister Bilotaitė said that Belarus continues to use immigrants as a tool of political pressure.
Considering that the hybrid pressure exerted by the Belarusian regime to protect the state border will not decrease and the risk of larger border incidents is also possible, Lithuania emphasised that it claims to support its army and others.
This month, the Interior Minister also announced that the country is considering stricter entry measures for the citizens of Belarus.
Lithuania has already banned the issuance of Schengen visas and banned the entry of citizens of Russia holding Schengen visas as well, and citizens of Belarus may soon face similar measures.
Meanwhile, at the beginning of last July, the Lithuanian authorities officially decided to extend the state of emergency in the entire border section with Belarus, which lasted until December 16, 2022.
As Minister Bilotaitė explains, such a measure is necessary to stop any other form of hybrid attacks by Belarus and Russia against the Republic of Lithuania.