Lithuania, Latvia, Poland Develop Mechanism For Complete Closure Of Borders With Belarus
- 9.08.2023, 13:01
Specific situations will be assessed at the interdepartmental level.
Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have jointly developed a single mechanism for the complete closure of the border with Belarus in case of a critical situation.
This is reported by belsat.eu with reference to the Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Šimonytė.
According to the developed strategy, specific situations will be assessed at the interdepartmental level. It will not necessarily happen publicly, but if a decision is made, it will be explained, Ingrida Šimonytė said. The minister did not specify what situations could lead to the closure of borders.
“We can sit and think about a bunch of events that are almost endless. There are an infinite number of incidents that can theoretically be invented, so I don’t want to talk about them, because it will look like an assessment of some real threats,” the official said.
At the moment, Lithuania is closing two checkpoints on the border with Belarus: Šumskas - Losha and Tverečius - Vidzy. Ingrida Šimonytė believes that six checkpoints on the border with our country is an excessive number from a geopolitical point of view, especially since the Lithuanian government has long discouraged people from traveling to Belarus.
“Despite this, there are a certain number of people who do not adhere to this recommendation or have special reasons for this, and this infrastructure is now, in our opinion, simply redundant for a geopolitical assessment. The State Border Service will need fewer resources to operate in the areas where there is more movement of individuals or non-truck vehicles. After the points are closed, the work will simply be concentrated in those points through which part of the commercial traffic passes,” the Prime Minister said.
Ingrida Šimonytė summed up the comment about the closure of the borders by saying that “the very fact of Wagner's presence in Belarus in no way allows the Lithuanian services to relax.”