{"id":498588,"date":"2025-11-26T11:58:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T08:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=498588"},"modified":"2025-11-26T12:04:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T09:04:27","slug":"budrys-belarus-seeks-political-talks-with-lithuania-to-escape-isolation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/budrys-belarus-seeks-political-talks-with-lithuania-to-escape-isolation","title":{"rendered":"Budrys: Belarus Seeks Political Talks With Lithuania To Escape Isolation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By insisting that the border situation be resolved at the level of foreign ministries, Belarus is seeking to end international isolation and have sanctions lifted, Lithuanian Foreign Minister K\u0119stutis Budrys<\/b> told LRT.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first task is to change \u2014 to put it plainly, to break \u2014 the European Union\u2019s policy towards Belarus and Russia, which is a policy of international isolation and refusal to talk to the regime. \u2026 The very fact that you move to a political and diplomatic level of communication means that this step has already been taken, and all the subsequent steps will follow \u2014 regarding Belarus\u2019s place in international organisations, as well as the future of various agreements and Belarus\u2019s place in the world,\u201d<\/i> Budrys said.<\/p>\n

He added that Belarus is also striving for the lifting of EU sanctions, which are \u201ceconomically and financially very painful.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why they chose Lithuania as the target, but I do not think this is only about Lithuania, it is an EU issue,\u201d<\/i> Budrys noted.<\/p>\n

Lithuania will do everything to protect its companies and their property, and after the return of the trucks it will consider how to reduce the risk of economic pressure and blackmail from Belarus.<\/p>\n

Budrys recalled that in February 2026 the EU will decide on the extension of sanctions.<\/p>\n

\u201cFebruary is approaching, when sanctions against Belarus will need to be extended \u2014 perhaps they will seize some property again and say: \u2018maybe you should veto the extension of sanctions,\u2019 and so on,\u201d<\/i> Budrys said.<\/p>\n

According to the Lithuanian foreign minister, Vilnius has \u201cmore than one, two or three\u201d communication channels with Minsk through which positions are exchanged. He also noted that several EU countries have channels of communication with Belarus, but their vision of European security architecture does not align with Lithuania\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Despite the early reopening of the border, Lithuanian trucks still cannot leave Belarus. State Secretary of the Security Council Alyaksandr Valfovich<\/b> admitted they are being held back due to Vilnius\u2019s unwillingness to engage in political dialogue. Alyaksandr Lukashenka<\/b> said today that the situation should be resolved by the foreign ministries of both countries. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda<\/b> refuses to discuss the issue at the political level, saying it can be resolved by the countries\u2019 border agencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By insisting that the border situation be resolved at the level of foreign ministries, Belarus is seeking to end international isolation and have sanctions lifted, Lithuanian Foreign Minister K\u0119stutis Budrys told LRT. \u201cThe first task is to change \u2014 to put it plainly, to break \u2014 the European Union\u2019s policy towards Belarus and Russia, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":498587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/6926c2a349313.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Budrys: Belarus Seeks Political Talks With Lithuania To Escape Isolation"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-498588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}