The Baltics and Belarus: Bringing down the borders

Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius met with Members of the EP and European Commissioners on April 24 to discuss the promotion of reforms in the EaP countries and EaP Summit in Vilnius.

Linkevičius elaborated saying:

“The mere fact that the EU leaders are discussing Eastern Partnership and committing themselves to help the countries to implement reforms is a positive result of the forthcoming summit already. It will also be a good and important outcome of the Summit, if we will come up with a common strategy of the EU on Eastern Partnership. Ambitious internal reforms and European aspirations of Eastern Neighbourhood countries depend on the successful cooperation between the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries.”

As Lithuania will hold the EU Council Presidency in the latter part of this year, and will also host the Partnership Summit in its capital in November, Lithuania is considered to have a special role to play in the intensification of cooperation with the Neighbourhood countries.  Attention has turned, particularly, to neighbouring Belarus–for which is it felt Lithuania may have the opportunity to foster a more constructive relationship, and encourage more cooperation with the EU.

As the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) explains:

“In recent times there has been an intensification of political and economic relations between Lithuania and Belarus. Because they are neighbours and have numerous political and economic links, Lithuania can be expected to want to use its presidency of the EU Council to resume a dialogue with the Belarusan authorities. This would be a great success for Lithuanian diplomacy, especially in the context of the Eastern Partnership summit planned for November this year. Poland should closely monitor the activities of the Lithuanian side and raise the issue of releasing political prisoners in Belarus as a condition for the resumption of talks with representatives of the regime.”

Latvian Foreign Minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs, also spoke about the importance of increased cooperation with Belarus, at a meeting with the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg currently. Rinkēvičs recently met with the Foreign Minister of Belarus, Vladimir Makei. The importance of an increased dialogue between the EU and Belarus was reportedly emphasised by both sides. The conditions for improvement were twofold: first, that Belarus improves its situation in the field of political freedoms and values; and for the EU, after seeing Belarus’ progress in this area, to resume the EU-Belarus political dialogue and activate practical cooperation in various sectors.

With this understanding, Minister Rinkēvičs proposed that the Foreign Minister of Belarus be invited to the meeting of the Eastern Partnership foreign ministers in July.

Belarus and Latvia have also discussed the need for greater cooperation between the two countries, specifically for the duration of the world ice hockey championship that will take place in Minsk in 2014.  A memorandum was signed 26 April in Minsk by the heads of the customs services of both countries.  The effectiveness of the bilateral cooperation in fighting the illegal transfer of goods and vehicles across the border and the possibility of carrying out joint operations was also discussed.

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