Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda suggests Vilnius should extend the gas transit contract for Russia’s Kaliningrad region, saying there is no need to create a crisis over it.
“I don’t think we should provoke Russia here, because we need to address the transit issues that have naturally arisen – natural gas, movement of people, and goods – to ensure normal communication with Kaliningrad,” the president said in Vilnius on Saturday.
“Creating artificial crises in this situation would only provoke conflict and escalate the crisis,” he added.
This year, Vilnius will negotiate with Russia and the European Union on extending the contract for natural gas transit through Lithuania to the Kaliningrad exclave.
The current 10-year gas transit contract, signed between Lithuania’s gas transmission system operator Amber Grid and Russia’s gas giant Gazprom in late December 2015, is set to expire in late 2025.
The previous contract was signed at the end of 1999.
Lithuania cut off Russian gas imports entirely in April 2022, except for transit via its territory to Kaliningrad.
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