Latvia and Poland set to stand with Lithuania on Belarusian fertilizer transit - Lithuanian president

VILNIUS - Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has said he has received assurances from the leaders of neighboring Poland and Latvia that they will take the same position as Lithuania on Belarusian fertilizer exports.

"I spoke at recent forums in both Helsinki and Brussels because I was interested to hear the opinions of the leaders of Poland and Latvian leaders on a hypothetical question: if someone offered to export Belarusian fertilizers through their ports, would they really take as firm a stance as Lithuania? And the answer was "yes"," he said in an interview with TV3 News on Thursday.

Lithuania suspended the transit of Belarusian potash fertilizers on February 1, 2022 after the United States imposed sanctions on Belaruskali, Belarus' largest potash fertilizer producer.

The US sanctions against Belaruskali came into force on December 8, 2021.

The European Union (EU) later followed suit by imposing sanctions against Belaruskali on March 2, 2022 when the European bloc adopted a regulation prohibiting the transport of potash fertilizers from Belarus.

However, the US promised in mid-December to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash fertilizers in exchange for the release of more than 100 prisoners from Belarus.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys has said that the US lifting sanctions on Belarusian potash fertilizer exports will not affect Lithuania and the European Union, as the European sanctions will remain in force.

According to Nauseda, the US is pursuing other objectives by lifting the aforementioned sanctions against Belarus.

"This is a country that is across the Atlantic Ocean, and, without a doubt, they have a certain different geopolitical strategy when looking at the world as a whole, ultimately because of their size. We are in this part of the continent, which can be described as hot, where aggressive states operate. And appeasing aggressive states or bowing down to them means that they will consider you weak and even more vulnerable, and such behavior would probably only fuel their aggressive ambitions. Therefore, we adhere to the position, and I have said this many times - I really like this idea - that a policy based on values is the most profitable policy," the Lithuanian president said on Thursday.

According to him, Belarus is a kind of powder keg, and "what is even worse, this powder keg essentially belongs to the Russian Federation".

"That is why dialogue is being conducted, as the dictator himself has recently noted, saying that we are talking to the Lithuanians, but we are talking at a lower level, we are talking about specific issues. American assistance is, of course, also appreciated, as the US is our great ally, which has considerable leverage over Belarus, and as we can see, at least for now, this is yielding certain results," the Lithuanian leader said.

The EU continues to extend its sanctions against Belaruskali, and further action should be decided at the beginning of next year.

Belaruskali's transit from the border with Belarus to the port of Klaipeda had been going on for more than a decade and was supposed to continue until the end of 2023.