Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budris said on Monday he was refusing to hold talks with Belarus on reopening border crossings between the two countries, after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko earlier ordered Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov to start such talks, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
Last month, Lithuania closed two border crossings with Belarus until the end of November after a series of violations of its airspace by weather balloons flying from Belarus. They caused disruptions in air traffic and even led to the temporary closure of Vilnius airport. According to Lithuanian authorities, the balloons are used by cigarette smugglers, and Belarus is deliberately not stopping this practice, which Vilnius describes as a "hybrid attack".
"Lukashenko does not set the rules. I will strongly urge the government not to go down the path he is trying to impose on us," the Lithuanian foreign minister told a Lithuanian online media outlet.
Budris, who met yesterday in Washington with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Donald Trump's special envoy for Belarus, John Cole, stressed that Lithuania is not alone in the situation and that the United States is fully engaged in it.
Trump has strengthened the American presence in relations with the authoritarian regime in Minsk, sending several delegations to Belarus this year. At the same time, Lukashenko is seeking to restore ties with Washington after years of international isolation and sanctions.
In September, Belarus released 52 prisoners after Trump called on Lukashenko, who has ruled the country for more than 30 years, to release another 1,400 detainees described by the US president as hostages.
Earlier, the Belarusian news agency Belta reported that Lukashenko had ordered the start of talks with Lithuania on border crossings between the two countries after meeting with the foreign minister, the head of the KGB and the head of the State Border Committee. He instructed his foreign minister to "organize talks to normalize the situation and restore the full functioning of border crossings on the common border".
In response, the Lithuanian foreign minister recommended not to hold talks with Belarus on reopening the border crossings, but according to Belta, Vilnius has presented its own proposals for resolving the crisis.