Lithuania can assist Belarus to ensure its energy independence from Russia. This opinion was expressed in Nesvizh after a meeting with Belarus' Prime Minister, Sergei Sidorsky, by his Lithuanian counterpart, Andrius Kubilius. According to the head of Lithuanian government, Belarus expressed a desire to participate in the building of liquified natural gas terminal in Lithuania and oil transit through Klaipėdos nafta.
«Belarus is very interested in development of new projects, which wil help it to ensure itself with gas or oil independently from Russia. We, as a neighboring state, could help in solving these problems», Andrius Kubilius stated, DELFI informs.
According to the prime minister of Lithuania, these are commercial issues and they should be agreed by both sides. Preliminary conclusions of experts on projects to reduce energy dependence of Belarus from Russia to appear in November, Andrius Kubilius noted. He said that «at least for trial shipments (of oil — Telegraf) there would be provided opportunities, and after that the economy itself should answer, if it is profitable for Belarusians to transport oil through our port and if it is advantageous for us to seek profits and benefits in such a project».
According to Andrius Kubilius, the construction of a terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) with Belarus at eight to ten billion cubic meters per year can be discussed along with Lithuania’s plans to build less powerful terminal for three billion cubic meters in Klaipeda for their own use. «Belarus continues to show its interest. I repeated that we see the possibility of a parallel discussion of the two projects, they may be united later», the head of Lithuanian government said.
At the same time, the president of the neighboring state, Dalia Grybauskaite, believes that gas terminal, first and foremost, must be used for their own needs. She refrained from assessing the possibility of Belarus’ participation in this project. «Firstly, Lithuania should build a terminal, and how and with whom — it is the question of the future. Lithuania should have it for its own needs, first of all», the president declared.
European tourists must know about Belarus, Kubilius
«Using the opportunity, we with the Minister of Economy, Kreyvis (Dainius Kreyvis — Telegraf) offered to discuss the possibility of common touristic projects, related to the GDL history. What we managed to see here over first three days: castles in Lida, Novogrudok, associated with Gediminas and Mindaugas, in Mir, the castle in Nesvizh, associated with Radziwill family, actually should be known by European tourists, who visited Vilnius, Trakai and other historical cities of Lithuania», Lithuanian prime minister stated.
According to him, to liven up the tourism, it is necessary to solve visa issue, because now visas for citizens of both countries are not cheap, and there are queues at the embassies. «There are no doubts that we must do that in Minsk, Grodno there will be no queues. The queues are quite large, especially during tourist season, when Belarusians want to come to rest in Lithuania», Andrius Kubilius said.
He also expressed his opinion that in the future the border between Belarus and Lithuania may disappear. «For centuries, all the space was unified by cultural and political interests, there was created European culture. History, in my opinion, is more powerful weapon than appeared borders. You just have to ride on a bike on the country’s roads to help it cope with the problems it has, including those related to human rights, democracy and its rapprochement with Europe», the head of Lithuanian government said and added that common historical heritage showed that borders, which exist between the neighbors now, may disappear, IA REGNUM informs.
Andrius Kubilius also suggested Sergei Sidorsky to rest in Lithuania. «We have jokingly spoken that he should spend his vacation in Lithuania. Then it will be our turn to try to create him an opportunity for cycling trip along interesting historical sites in Lithuania», the prime minister of the neighboring state said.
As Telegraf previously reported, on July 25, 30 Lithuanian cyclists representing Lithuanian politicians, bureaucrats, their friends and family members started their cycling tour through the territory of Belarus. A column is headed by Lithuanian Prime Minister, Andrius Kubilius. It includes representatives of «Homeland Union — Lithuanian Christian Democrats» party, Minister of Social Security and Labour, Donatas Jankauskas, and Economy Minister, Dainius Kreyvis.
On July, 27 in Nesvizh there was held an informal meeting of the Prime Ministers of Belarus and Lithuania, Sergei Sidorski and Andrius Kubilius. Prime Ministers drove through the city in the horse carriage, they visited Slutskaya Brama, the Corpus Christi Church and the castle and the tombs of the Radziwill family.
It is planned that cycling trip will end on August 1.
