On Friday, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs said the country needs time to look into data provided by Lithuania to prove that electricity from Belarus' Astravyets nuclear plant was being traded in the Baltic countries.
Earlier this month, Lithuanian Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys said that Lithuania had already paid almost 4 million euros for the Astravyets electricity and that the annual amount would reach 120 million euros if trade between Russia and Latvia continues at the existing volume.
In Riga, Rinkēvičs said he understood Lithuania's concerns and promised to seek a solution acceptable to both countries, but added that his ministry does not want to give any deadlines for making decisions.
"Give us some time please to consult the experts, to get expert opinion from the Ministry of Economy and let the aligned ministries work," he told reporters.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, who presented the Lithuanian Energy Ministry's data on trade in Astravyets electricity on the Riga power exchange, also said that Latvia needs time to analyse the information.
Read more: Lithuania's feud with Baltic states over energy trade – explainer
"We have information that the [Lithuanian] Ministry of Energy had a phone call with the Ministry of Economy of Latvia and [...] the discussion was fruitful," Landsbergis said at the news conference.
Lithuania has banned the electricity trade with Belarus after it launched the Astravyets nuclear power plant, which is located some 50 kilometres from Vilnius. Lithuania says the plant built by Russia’s state atomic agency Rosatom and funded by a loan from the Kremlin is unsafe and was built in breach of international safety standards.
Senior officials have also accused the Kremlin of using the power plant as a tool to pressure the Baltic states and Belarus.
On Friday, Lithuanian Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys said that he had invited Latvia to reconsider the methodology for power trade with Russia and Belarus.
Vilnius says the methodology that was drafted by the three Baltic countries last year to boycott energy from Belarus, which was not approved by Lithuania, fails to bar market access for Belarusian electricity. Lithuania has now proposed a new methodology.
The Baltic states are currently connected in a joint, Soviet-era energy grid with Belarus, which is controlled from Moscow. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania plan to switch to a European network by 2025.
Read more: Belarus nuclear plant – safety threat or Kremlin's tool to keep Baltics close?
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