Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry on Monday handed a note of protest to a representative of Belarus over a threatening statement by a Minsk official.
The note was handed to Belarus’ chargé d’affaires ad interim Yaroslav Khmyl over a statement by Pavel Muraveiko, the first deputy state secretary of the Security Council of Belarus, which was published in the Vechernyj Minsk newspaper on October 24. Muraveiko stated that Lithuania’s restrictions on the cross-border movement of goods constituted “economic aggression” that could be fought with arms.
“Under all rules of international law, such a step constitutes economic aggression. According to banal logic, we have every reason to break a vital corridor using arms. And in other circumstances, no one in the world would judge us, I dare say. But not in the present circumstances where the country is under unprecedented pressure from the West,” Muraveiko said.
In June, the Lithuanian government temporarily banned the movement of dual-use goods through and out of Lithuania as they could go to Russia and Belarus and be used in the war against Ukraine.
“Such statements could be interpreted as an open threat to attack Lithuania and are completely unacceptable,” the statement from the Foreign Ministry said.
In June, the government restricted the shipment of 57 groups of goods, mainly microelectronics and semiconductor components, on the approved national list of controlled dual-use items.
Since July 3, the Lithuanian Customs requires haulers to provide manufacturers’ declarations confirming that they know the seller and buyer of the goods they are transporting in a third country, that the goods will be transiting through Belarus or Russia, that they will not be resold or transhipped in these countries, and they also know who the end-user in the third country is.
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