The Belarusian government has announced that it is banning cargo transit from Lithuania. The move is a retaliation for Lithuania's earlier sanctions on Belarusian fertiliser shipments.
“We have made a decision to ban the transportation of cargo by rail from Lithuania,” the Foreign Ministry of Belarus said in the announcement on Wednesday.
Prior to the announcement, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said Vilnius was taking Minsk's threats seriously.
“We take it seriously. All other threats from the Belarusian regime after the migrant crisis have already shown that they should be taken seriously because they can become a reality,” Landsbergis told reporters.
On Tuesday, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said that Minsk could take tough retaliatory measures against Lithuania that halted the transit of Belaruskali potash fertilisers.
According to Golovchenko, the measures would be targeted at trains coming from the Lithuanian territory.
Landsbergis said that it was too early to speak about Lithuania’s possible response.
Lithuanian Railways (Lietuvos Geležinkeliai, LTG) terminated its long-term contract with the US-sanctioned Belarusian potash giant on February 1, after the government ruled that it was not in line with national security interests.
Read more: Belaruskali to wrap up cargo shipments across Lithuania at midnight
LTG had no official information about any trains being blocked by Belarus, the state-owned railway company told BNS on Wednesday.
On average, around 18 trains are travelling from Lithuania to Belarus every day, LTG added. Their cargo mainly consists of oil products, fertilisers, and ferrous metals.
Last week, Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko said his regime might block the flow of Lithuanian goods through Belarus in retaliation to the halted transit of Belaruskali fertilisers.
According to him, Belarus might redirect its export flows from the Baltic to Russian ports.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
