MINSK, 2 February (BelTA) – The Lithuanian government's illegal decision to stop the transit of Belarusian fertilizers most blatantly violates legal norms, BelTA learned from Press Secretary of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anatoly Glaz on 2 February.
The press secretary said: “The Lithuanian government's illegal decision to stop the transit of Belarusian fertilizers most blatantly violates law norms, direct bilateral and multilateral obligations of the Lithuanian side.”
Those include the agreement dated by 3 April 2000 and specifying transit conditions of Belarusian goods using ports and other transport infrastructure of Lithuania as well as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. “These documents legally bind Lithuania to enable transit for Belarus as a landlocked country,” the official pointed out.
Anatoly Glaz remarked that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury had officially informed the Lithuanian side that U.S. sanctions against Belaruskali are not mandatory for Lithuanian Railways. “Respectively the decision of the still current Lithuanian government represents an initiative. In this context the ban is part of the hybrid aggression against Belarus, an aggression designed to inflict direct economic damage on the wellbeing of the Belarusian nation,” the official stressed.
In his words, guided by the principles of good neighborhood and unwilling to inflict damage on the long-suffering Lithuanian nation, Belarus refrained from drastic response measures in connection with the persistent hostile actions of the reckless Lithuanian leadership.
“The move represents caveman savagery within the framework of modern rules of international trade. With this step the Lithuanian government has once again confirmed its uncivilized and unreliable nature as a trade partner in addition to a number of other actions of theirs,” the press secretary of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted.
