Lithuania should continue seeking ways to communicate with Belarusian authorities despite strained relations, Seimas Speaker Juozas Olekas said Thursday, while stressing that sanctions against Minsk should be strengthened rather than eased.
“We won’t perform any miracles here, but we need to seek out different paths and contacts,” Olekas told reporters after meeting with Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. “We cannot simply separate ourselves and claim we will change everything and things will improve, but our goal is to seek opportunities to deliver our message.”
Olekas said Lithuanian authorities maintain regular contacts with the Minsk government at technical and certain ministerial levels, with such contacts periodically renewed.
At the same time, he said Lithuania should continue pushing for stronger sanctions against Belarus.
Lithuania first imposed sanctions targeting Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s government in 2020 following a crackdown on mass protests after a disputed presidential election. Since February 2022, Lithuania has suspended the transit of Belarusian potash fertilisers.
The European Union extended its sanctions on Belarusian fertilisers for another year in February. The decision came despite the United States lifting its own sanctions on some Belarusian fertiliser exports this year and subsequently approaching Lithuania and other countries in the region about potentially resuming transit.
Conservative MP Žygimantas Pavilionis, deputy chairman of the Seimas Foreign Affairs Committee who attended Thursday’s meeting, suggested that Lithuanian officials visit Washington before the next extension of the sanctions to coordinate with US officials and ensure the measures remain in place.
Pavilionis said the biggest challenge could arise during Lithuania’s presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2027, when decisions on extending sanctions are expected to coincide with the presidency.
“Knowing that pressure exists and such a threat is approaching, we need to act very actively now, not in February or after February when it will be too late,” Pavilionis said.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
