Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry said it had not received an official proposal from Belarus to hold a meeting at the level of deputy ministers or any other level. The statement came after US special envoy for Belarus John Coale called for the restoration of Lithuanian-Belarusian contacts, LRT reported, citing ELTA.
“The Foreign Ministry has not received such a proposal from Belarus,” the ministry told the agency earlier this week.
The chief adviser to President Gitanas Nausėda, Asta Skaisgirytė, said that dialogue with Belarus is currently taking place, but only at a technical level, between services. According to her, meaningful political dialogue requires conditions and goodwill from Minsk.
“We are talking to Belarus at a very technical level, at the level of services. And no mediators are needed here. The messages that need to be conveyed are conveyed, and for us to have a meaningful political dialogue, conditions and goodwill are needed. Then we could talk, if there were something to talk about. But at present we do not really understand what we would be talking about: whether to remind Belarus that its territory was provided to Russian armed forces for the attack on Ukraine, for example, or that political prisoners continue to be thrown into prison?” she said on Žinių radijas on Tuesday.
“Indeed, it would be difficult to imagine that Belarus wants dialogue if these, I am not afraid to say, hybrid attacks continue (…). If there were truly a sincere desire for this dialogue, then this activity should probably stop first. Then it would be possible to start talking. So far, this is not visible,” the presidential adviser added.
Gitanas Nausėda had previously said that dialogue would only be possible if Belarus demonstrated a genuine desire to develop good-neighbourly relations.
Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė, in turn, outlined three specific conditions: ending the launch of weather balloons across the border, returning Lithuanian trucks detained by the Belarusian side without additional charges, and stopping the illegal passage of migrants across the border.
Earlier, John Coale called on Lithuania to hold a bilateral meeting with Minsk at the level of deputy foreign ministers and also spoke in favour of resuming the transit of Belarusian potash fertilisers through Lithuanian territory.
