Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has dismissed claims by Alexander Lukashenko of NATO build-up on the Belarusian border as "baseless".
"The regime is trying to divert attention from Belarus' internal problems at any cost with totally baseless statements about imaginary external threats," the president told BNS.
His comment came in response to Lukashenko's statement on Saturday that NATO troops in Poland and Lithuania were "seriously stirring" near their borders with Belarus and ordered his troops into full combat readiness.
Lithuanian Defence Minister Raimundas Karoblis said the country’s military is “maintaining its usual activities”, adding that all large-scale drills have finished and there are no additional military movements in either Lithuania or Poland.
Oana Lungescu, NATO spokeswoman, told BBC that “any claims about a NATO buildup on the border with Belarus are baseless”.
“NATO poses no threat to Belarus or any other country and has no military buildup in the region,” she said.
Belarus has been engulfed in protests for the past several weeks against vote-rigging during the recent presidential election.
Read more: Belarus' drills near Lithuanian border pose no threat, defence minister says
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