From February 7, Belarus introduces a ban on rail transit from Lithuania for a group of goods. This was announced on February 2 by the press secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Anatoly Glaz.
“Belarus cannot ignore this hybrid attack (Lithuania’s ban on the transit of Belarusian goods. – Ed.) and is forced, as warned in advance, to take retaliatory measures. We have decided to ban the transit through our territory of oil products, chemical and mineral fertilizers, shipped from Lithuania by rail, loaded at the stations of the Lithuanian Railways, ”he is quoted as saying. “BelTA”.
According to Glaz, about 1.5-1.6 million tons of such cargoes worth more than $1 billion annually are transported through the territory of Belarus.
“The direct losses of the Klaipeda port, the Lithuanian railways and other participants in the Lithuanian supply chain will be calculated for a long time, but it is already clear that they amount to hundreds of millions of euros,” said the press secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.
Glaz recalled that earlier Lithuania banned the transit of Belarusian goods through its ports. According to him, the Belarusian side has repeatedly offered consultations to resolve issues in the legal field, but Lithuania did not agree to a dialogue.
In turn, the CEO of Achema, the largest nitrogen fertilizer plant in the Baltic States, said that Lithuanian enterprises exporting their products fear losses due to increased costs for the supply of goods to foreign customers in connection with the sanctions of Belarus with the closure of railway transit.
On January 19, the state company Lithuanian Railways (LZhD) officially informed Belaruskali about the termination of the contract on the transit of Belarusian fertilizers through Lithuania to the Klaipeda seaport.
Then the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko instructed to introduce retaliatory measures in case of cargo blocking in Lithuania. He also drew attention to the fact that Minsk is ready for dialogue with the Lithuanian side.
On February 1, Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko said that the transit of Belarusian potassium was redirected to Russian ports after the decision of Lithuania. According to him, in terms of logistics, the Russian route is less marginal, but due to the global rise in prices, Belaruskali will even win.
At the same time, on January 12, it became known that the Lithuanian government terminated the agreement on railway transit of Belarusian potash fertilizers through the country. At the same time, in December 2021, it was reported that the Lithuanian Ministry of Transport had prepared a bill prohibiting the transportation of goods from Belarus through the country. However, during the specified period, the transportation was not suspended.
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