Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė said she sees no possibility of even a slight thaw in relations between Vilnius and Minsk as long as the Belarusian capital attempts to speak from a position of force.
“So far, I do not see any warming in these relations, and there are probably no reasons for it,” Ruginienė said, according to BNS and LRT.
According to her, she discussed relations between Lithuania and Belarus with Maria Kalesnikava, who is currently in Lithuania.
“As long as Belarus demonstrates aggression, as long as it perceives only the language of force, sees that only pressure can influence us, (…) we really do not see any opportunity to even slightly ‘thaw’ these relations. We do not support communication in the language of force and we state this clearly,” the Lithuanian prime minister said.
“Communication must be on equal terms. We can talk about certain interests, but at present I see neither the opportunity nor the circumstances for this, because today the Belarusian side shows no interest in discussing specific practical issues. It seems to them that demonstrating pressure, testing our systems, the same balloons, trucks — is an appropriate language for communicating with us. We do not think so.
In normal relations, either people sit down and calmly discuss technical and practical issues, or, if someone finds it more important to demonstrate force and pressure, then this is completely uninteresting to us,” she added.