Юозас Олекас. Фото: канцелярия Сейма Литвы
Lithuanian Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas said he does not expect any changes in the country’s policy towards Belarus at this stage. According to him, any easing of that policy could only be considered after democratic change in the country.
“I do not see any signs that this is happening. I do not see it taking place. The programme that has been presented says nothing about such changes,” he said, as quoted by LRT.
Earlier today, Lithuania’s new Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius presented his government’s programme. The wording in the foreign policy section has been changed. Whereas the previous government declared that it would seek the international isolation of both Russia and Belarus, the new programme removes the reference to Belarus from that statement.
Belarus is mentioned elsewhere in the programme, where the government pledges to strengthen the country’s isolation if Belarus continues to support Russia’s aggression against Ukraine or carries out hybrid attacks against Ukraine or the European Union.
The Lithuanian president’s office has already stated that no changes in policy towards Belarus are expected.
“We would like to have democratic neighbours with whom we could communicate and whom we could visit, because a significant part of Lithuania’s historical heritage is located in Belarus, (…) and economic ties could also bring considerable benefits. If these changes take place, then it will be possible to discuss changing the sanctions regime. But for now, I see nothing of the sort,” Olekas said.
He linked the change in wording to increased US engagement on Belarus.
“I think we are in a situation where our main strategic partner, the United States, has a certain approach: it is making greater use of dialogue (…) to resolve the accumulated problems that have particularly affected Belarusian society. (…) Therefore, it seems to me that the programme of the 21st government has somewhat changed its tone compared with the previous one,” Olekas said.
He also stressed that Lithuania opposes political repression and continues to put pressure on the authorities in Minsk to end it, while reaffirming support for Belarus’s democratic forces.
Olekas also pointed to a decline in airborne smuggling.
“Of course, isolated cases will probably remain unavoidable, as criminal groups try to adapt when they receive support from one regime or another, although the scale of that support is unclear. But we cannot fail to see that both our efforts and those of the Americans are producing results,” he said.
It is worth noting that Juozas Olekas belongs to the same political party as the new prime minister.