Гитанас Науседа. Фото: @GitanasNauseda
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, in an interview with TV3, specified the conditions for starting a dialogue with Minsk. According to him, if there are no weather balloons or migration pressure at the border for at least four weeks, this could be regarded as a sign of goodwill and grounds for beginning talks.
“Given the record flow of illegal migrants at our border in recent days or the constant attacks using balloons, should we really now turn to the neighbouring regime asking for mercy and a meeting?” he said, commenting on statements by U.S. presidential envoy John Coale about wanting to reconcile Lithuania and Belarus.
“On the contrary, I would say that we should very specifically state that if in the coming weeks, over a four-week period, there are no balloons, no illegal migrants, all trucks return safely to Lithuania, and the regime genuinely demonstrates efforts to normalise relations, at least without creating tension for its neighbour, we will regard this as a sign of goodwill and perhaps begin such a dialogue.
But for that, there must be very clear conditions, and the current conditions are very far from those that could be imagined for the start of a dialogue”, he continued.
It should be noted that such conditions for starting dialogue had previously been publicly stated by both the president and prime minister of Lithuania, but this time Nausėda also specified a concrete period of “calm” — four weeks.
The Lithuanian president was also asked whether the issue of fertiliser transit would be discussed if Minsk fulfilled the stated conditions.
“We cannot take any specific steps from Lithuania’s side on this issue because, as you know very well, these are European Union sanctions, and they were introduced much earlier.
Some time ago, at the end of February, these sanctions were extended for another 12 months. Europe is certainly not ready to violate the established extension period at this moment. But those 12 months will pass sooner or later.
During that time, other positive changes may occur, and the regime has an infinite number of opportunities to show that they genuinely want to move closer to the West, that they want to stop being Russia’s puppet in the war against Ukraine — I understand that today such an assumption seems unlikely, but they have the opportunity to demonstrate this — and then we will undoubtedly be among those who say, without ignoring that fact, even at European Union forums, that ‘look, the situation in Belarus is changing, and we can change our policy accordingly’, but today I do not see any such preconditions”, he replied.