Lithuanian president hopes Baltic countries will withdraw from BRELL, synchronize together

VILNIUS – Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda hopes that the Baltic countries will together withdraw from the post-Soviet BRELL agreement with Russia and Belarus and will synchronize their electricity grids with the Western European system at the same time.

“Of course, I imagine ideal synchronization when we all synchronize with Continental Europe, we all – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, without excluding anyone. I hope we will keep following this policy, this strategy and will settle all issues along the way,” he told reporters in Sakiai District, South-West Lithuania, on Saturday when Litgrid, Lithuania's electricity transmission system operator, performed an isolated operation test of the country’s electricity system.

“I don’t want to guess what could be if what if. I think we will do that [withdraw from the BRELL treaty] together when the time is right and when we are ready,” Nauseda said, when asked if he would support Lithuania’s unilateral withdrawal from the treaty.

Lithuanian officials earlier said that they tried to persuade Latvia and Estonia to join the isolated operation test performed by Lithuania on Saturday but the transmission system operators of the said two countries refused to join Lithuania’s test saying they were technically unready for the exercise.

Speaking about Latvia’s and Estonia’s decision not to join the test, Nauseda warned against making “hasty political conclusions”.

“It’s true, there are also certain technical issues, which probably did not allow our neighbors, partners to join us at this stage,” he said.

Lithuanian officials earlier confirmed that if the test were successful, the country would consider exercising an option in the BRELL treaty, which regulates the participation in the post-Soviet energy system, to withdraw from it in February 2024.