Minsk announces the ban of Lithuanian cargo transit through Belarus as of February 7

February 2, BPN. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus announced the ban of Lithuanian Railways’ cargo transit through Belarus starting from February 7. The decision was made “in connection with the illegal decision of the Government of Lithuania on termination of the transit of potash fertilizers,” which “flagrantly violates norms of the law, direct bilateral and multilateral obligations of the Lithuanian side.”

The MFA refers to the agreement of April 3, 2000 on the conditions of Belarusian cargo transit using Lithuanian ports and other transport facilities as well as to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ratified by the EU, Belarus, and Lithuania. These documents “legally oblige Lithuania to grant Belarus the right of transit as a landlocked country.”

Moreover, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department “has confirmed that the sanctions against JSC Belaruskali are not binding on the state enterprise Lithuanian Railways.”

According to the Foreign Ministry, Vilnius’ decision to refuse transit of Belaruskali cargo represents “an element of hybrid aggression against Belarus aimed at causing direct economic damage to the wellbeing of the Belarusian people,” as well as “cave wildness.”

“Unwilling to cause damage to the long-suffering Lithuanian people,” Belarus “refrained from harsh retaliatory measures in connection with the consistent hostile actions of the reckless Lithuanian leadership” and “repeatedly offered consultations to resolve the issue in the legal field.”

“The Government of Lithuania once again proved to the whole world to be uncivilized and unreliable as a trading partner in addition to a number of its other deeds,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Minsk has made a decision “to ban the transit through our territory by rail transport of oil products, chemical and mineral fertilizers loaded at the stations of the Lithuanian Railways.”

“About 1.5-1.6 million tons of such cargoes are transported through the territory of the Republic of Belarus in the amount of more than 1 billion US dollars annually. […] Direct losses of the port of Klaipeda, JSC Lithuanian Railways and other participants in the Lithuanian supply chain will be counted for a long time, but it is already clear that they amount to hundreds of millions of euros. Multimillion losses are also expected based on lawsuits that have already been brought against Lithuania, and due to penalties,” the Foreign Ministry said in its statement. Belarus “reserves the right to take further economic actions, including jointly with its partners, as a result of which the Lithuanian transit infrastructure may go to scrap.”

According to the MFA, Belarusian government “has developed all necessary logistics solutions to reorient all its cargo flows, not only fertilizers, to the seaports of states that fulfill their obligations and are reliable partners for our country.”

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that the issue of redirecting supplies of Belarusian potash fertilizers from Lithuanian Klaipeda to Russian ports has not been resolved yet.