He lithuanian government announced this Friday that it has completely closed the border with Belarusafter announcing two days ago that it would close two of its six border crossings with that country in response to the presence of mercenaries of the Wagner group on Belarusian territory.
“This is a complete border closure, unless there is perhaps some humanitarian or diplomatic crossingbut otherwise the border is completely closed,” said the Minister of the Interior, Agne Bilotaitein an interview with Lithuanian public television (LRT).
Bilotaite added that a closure of the border crossings between Lithuania and the Russian Federation is not ruled out either.
“We had a meeting with the head of the State Border Guard Service and the whole team discussed not only the closure of the border with Belarus, but also other options, such as the closure of the border with the Russian Federation“, said.
Bilotaite stressed that with the vicinity of Russia and Belarus his country has to live with a continuous threat but he added that he is prepared to deal with it.
“We are NATO and we really invest a lot in our defense and in our people, our society must feel that we will have someone to help us. But we also have to do everything ourselves to ensure our own safety,” she assured.
After the closure of the border control posts, there were no incidents at them, he told the LRT. Saulius NekraseviciusDeputy Commander of the State Border Guard Service (VSAT).
“There were no incidents at the border checkpoints,” Nekrasevicius said.
The closure of Lithuania’s border with Belarus comes after it became known this week that the Baltic countries and Poland are discussing the possibilities of completely close the borders with that country and that the final details will be coordinated at a meeting in Warsaw on August 28.
The Polish and Latvian presidents, Andrzej Duda and Edgars Rinkeviczsindicated after a meeting held this Wednesday in Poland that security and the situation on the border with Belarus is a priority issue.
(With information from EFE)
Keep reading:
Lithuania called to reinforce the eastern flank of NATO in the presence of Yevgeny Prigozhin in Belarus
Joe Biden met in Lithuania with the leader of the Belarusian opposition to express US support
NATO members increase their defenses on the eastern flank against threats from the Wagner Group and Belarus
Source-www.infobae.com