President Gitanas Nausėda has submitted to the Lithuanian parliament Seimas a proposal to denounce three treaties with Russia and Belarus related to economic cooperation, the President’s Office announced on Monday.
Nausėda is proposing to denounce the treaty on the promotion and protection of investments signed by the governments of Lithuania and Belarus on March 5, 1999, in Minsk, a similar treaty with Russia signed on June 29, 1999, in Moscow, and the treaty on the avoidance of double taxation of incomes and capital and the avoidance of fiscal irregularities signed with Russia at the same time.
The pace of denunciation of these treaties has recently raised questions among Lithuanian politicians.
The government took its decision to denounce the treaties in question on May 22. Since then, the president has been waiting to present them to the parliament for denunciation.
Deputy Seimas Speaker Žygimantas Pavilionis linked the Nausėda’s inaction to the Seimas’ Whistleblower Commission which stated that persons related to the Belarusian fertiliser business could have had an influence on the president.
Belarusian fertiliser maker Belaruskali owns a 30 percent stake in Birių Krovinių Terminalas, a stevedoring company in Klaipėda Port, despite the existing EU sanctions.
Asta Skaisgirytė, Nausėda’s chief foreign policy adviser, told the Žinių Radijas radio last week that she could say “in full responsibility” that President Nausėda was not under pressure from Belarusian fertiliser business.
She also dismissed the controversy over the denunciation of the treaties as a “fuss” related to the upcoming Seimas election.
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