The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BelarusMINSK, Feb. 2The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said that Lithuania's decision to stop the transit of Belarusian potassium chloride through its territory to seaports is an element of hybrid aggression, it is aimed at causing economic damage to Minsk. «This step is an element of hybrid aggression against Belarus, aimed at causing direct economic damage to well-being Belarusian people,» the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement in connection with Lithuania's decision to stop the transit of Belarusian potash fertilizers. The statement was published on Wednesday on the website of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.Minsk promised a tough response to the termination of the transit of potassium by Lithuania «The illegal decision of the government of the Republic of Lithuania to terminate the transit of Belarusian potash fertilizers grossly violates the rule of law, direct bilateral and multilateral obligations of the Lithuanian side. Among them is the agreement of April 3, 2000 on the conditions for the transit of goods of the Republic Belarus using the ports and other transport infrastructure of the Republic of Lithuania, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was ratified by the EU, Minsk and Vilnius. These documents legally oblige Lithuania to provide transit to Belarus as a landlocked country,» the statement says. that the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury (OFAC) officially informed the Lithuanian side that the US sanctions against JSC Belaruskali are not binding on the state enterprise Lithuanian Railways. «Accordingly, the decision of the current government of Lithuania is initiative,» the Belarusian Foreign Ministry stated. hostile actions of the reckless Lithuanian leadership.» It is noted that the Belarusian side has repeatedly offered consultations to resolve the issue in the legal field: on January 18 and 28, 2022, the relevant proposals were sent to the Lithuanian side by the leadership of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Belarus.
The Kremlin is discussing the redirection of the transit of Belarusian fertilizers»We also proposed a dialogue on this issue at the level of heads of government. Official Vilnius refused, pursuing the goal of inflicting maximum damage on Belarusians at the expense of its taxpayers. Within the framework of modern rules of international trade, this is a cave savagery. With such a step, the government of Lithuania once again signed to the whole world for its uncivilization and unreliability as a trading partner, in addition to a number of other actions. The Republic of Belarus cannot ignore this hybrid attack and is forced, as warned in advance, to take retaliatory measures,» the government said in a statement. On January 12, Lithuania decided to cancel the agreement on the transit of Belarusian fertilizers from February 1 in the light of the sanctions imposed on December 8 by the United States against Belaruskali. On December 21, the Coordinating Commission for Ensuring the Protection of Objects Important to Lithuania's National Security decided that the agreement between the state company Lietuvos Gelezinkelai and Belaruskali did not meet the interests of national security. Based on these findings, the Cabinet decided to terminate the contract. It was signed in 2018 until 2023 and provided for rail transit through Lithuania and loading 11 million tons of Belarusian fertilizers per year in the port of Klaipeda. In January, the state company Lithuanian Railways (LZhD) informed the Belarusian company Belaruskali of the termination of the contract with it from February 1 by decision of the government of the country. A scandal broke out in Lithuania after the United States imposed sanctions against Belaruskali, and Lithuanian railways» continued the transit of Belarusian products through the territory of Lithuania, for which they have already received an advance payment. The heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Transport submitted their resignations, but the prime minister did not satisfy the petition. The head of the Latvian Railway, Mantas Bartushka, resigned. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that the situation around Belaruskali had done great harm to the reputation of the state. Against this background, the Lithuanian Ministry of Transport announced plans to propose to the government to impose sanctions against Belaruskali at the national level by passing a law. To this end, the ministry has prepared a bill that prohibits the transit of goods from Belarus. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on Monday instructed to take retaliatory measures against Lithuania in case of blocking the transit of goods from Belarus. Ministry of Transport of Lithuania
