RIGA - Lithuania and Latvia may soon find a common stance on maritime oil deposits off their coastlines, as Latvia has expressed a willingness to ratify an economic treaty that would split the deposits fifty-fifty with its neighbor.
Justinas Karosas, foreign committee chairman in Lithuania's Parliament, and Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis confirmed this after having met with Aleksandrs Kirsteins, chairman of Latvia's foreign committee, at a Feb. 9 meeting in Vilnius.
Kirsteins told the Baltic News Service that Karosas had agreed to propose a separate agreement over splitting oil deposits to his colleagues in the Seimas (Lithuania's parliament), adding that there should be no problem with the document's approval.
Kirsteins said that although Lithuania has ratified its sea-border treaty with Latvia, a separate agreement on the division of the oil deposits is necessary. He said Lithuania's change of heart on the deposits had to do with the fact that the income from exploration and extraction wouldn't be particularly large.
Kirsteins said that Latvia's position had not changed and that the country still insisted on an equal split.
The Seimas has ratified the Latvian-Lithuanian sea border treaty, signed in 1999, but Latvia's Parliament only upheld the document during its first reading in the fall of the same year.
As Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis said: "We are willing to review the Lithuanian border treaty by signing a special bilateral economic cooperation agreement that would govern possible use of oil in the future."
While the Latvian Foreign Ministry said the treaty was a compromise in no way jeopardizing Latvia's economic interests, there were several who thought otherwise.
"The issue has not been solved because it is very complicated," Kalvitis explained. "If the Lithuanian government is ready to sign an economic cooperation agreement exactly on this subject, we are also ready to review the border treaty."
The Economy Ministry and geologists argued that, since oil deposits could be found in border areas outlined in the treaty, an agreement about future drilling was necessary.
Latvian fishermen have protested the sea-border agreement, fearing that they would lose their traditional fishing territories. EU accession, however, laid the conflict to rest, allowing Latvians and Lithuanians to catch fish in each other's territory.
