Informal talks
During the party congress in Palanga on Saturday, Skvernelis, who was elected chairman of the new party „Vardan Lietuvos“ (In the Name of Lithuania), spared no criticism of the current Government and its policies. He said that „we currently have a foreign policy based on values, which has no room for the interests of Lithuanian citizens“.
In the programme Alfa Taškas on Lietuvos Rytas television, Skvernelis pointed out that any policy, and especially foreign policy, must have values-based priorities.
„If for someone the economic interests of our people, in the broadest sense, are not important, are not values-based, and if the values of perhaps bringing democracy and freedom to distant countries are values-based, regardless of the consequences that the country faces, then this is such a policy,“ the former prime minister said about Lithuania’s policy towards China and Taiwan.
Skvernelis also has a number of remarks to make about the history of Belarusian fertiliser transit. On Tuesday, the contract between Lietuvos Geležinkeliai and the Belarusian state-owned company Belaruskalij for the transit of fertilisers through Lithuania was terminated, and the transportation of the latter’s products through Lithuania had to be halted.
However, back in mid-January, after a closed session of the Seimas Committee on National Security and Defence, Skvernelis stated that he could not disclose much information to journalists. Still, they hinted that „there are a lot of details that the public should know“.
During the programme, Skvernelis pointed out that the public should see the whole picture, from the institutions involved in this story to the potential losses.
„I think we need to know the details – how these sanctions came about, who initiated them. It is very important to understand what kind of negotiations took place between the official Lithuanian institutions and the intermediaries of the Belarusian regime. What agreements were made and to what extent does this relate to illegal migration? What will happen if fertilisers [their transit] are interrupted? Will the refugees who, after informal talks with representatives of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have suddenly turned towards Poland and Latvia, bypassing Lithuania, reappear on our borders?
Finally, to name the figures that have been said about the losses, they start at a billion euro. Again, without knowing the consequences, not only directly for Lietuvos Geležinkeliai and the port of Klaipėda, but also the costs that Lithuania may incur if every beneficiary, whoever does not receive the product, goes to the international courts and demands compensation.
Then Lithuania will have to hire, as it always does in such cases, private law firms, which are precisely waiting for this because it will certainly be an excellent bit of litigation, a lengthy, profitable process. We will also suffer enormous losses, and this should be known to the public, the whole picture should be seen, and it should not be kept highly secret,“ Skvernelis explained.
„But there were such classified marks, and that secrecy remains for the time being,“ he added.
The politician pointed out that the sanctions have made fertilisers more expensive on the world market and enriched the Minsk regime even more.
„Agriculture and food production all over the world, especially in the third world, cannot be done without potash fertiliser. Whoever controls this market has acquired a very serious tool. And if Russia, with about 20% [market share], will manage to take over Belaruskalij, which it has been trying to do for probably 20 years, under pressure, even when there were mass demonstrations in Minsk and Lukashenko’s regime was really hesitant about whether it would survive, even then it did not sign up to sell Belaruskalij to the Russian counterpart.
It is understood that if something like this happens, Russia will gain, in addition to its armed forces, another tool to pressure and blackmail the whole world, as far as potash fertilisers are concerned,“ said Skvernelis.
„On the other hand, it is obvious that when this crisis broke out, the price of fertilisers went up to three times higher, and automatically the profits of the regime, which also receives income from this, went into the budget,“ he said.
On Tuesday, Lietuvos Geležinkeliai’s contract with Belarusian state-owned company Belaruskalij for the transit of fertilisers through Lithuania was terminated, so the latter’s production had to stop being transported through Lithuania. The termination is based on a Government decision adopted in mid-January stating that the contract threatens national security.
On Monday, Rustamas Liubajevas, the head of the State Border Guard Service (VSAT), said that he did not rule out the possibility that the current calm situation at the border could change after the transit Belarusian fertilisers stopped in Lithuania from February 1.
„It is possible that after February 1, the situation may change, and we are certainly preparing for that. First of all, the border is being secured under a reinforced regime. Then we are preparing together with our partners, the institutions that help us to secure the border, for the possibility of deploying additional forces at the border,“ Liubajevas told Elta.
Source; author: Rimvydas Paleckis
