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Belarus’ western neighbors agree to jointly combat threats at EU border
February 26, Pozirk. The prime ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland signed a joint declaration on strengthening cooperation to beef up border security and respond to hybrid threats, according to a statement by the Latvian government.
Noting the multiple challenges to security environment amid “the ongoing hybrid attacks by Russia and Belarus,” the sides committed “to resist the instrumentalization of migration and other hybrid threats at the external borders of the European Union, including land, sea, and airspace.”
The three countries agreed to develop corresponding measures within the existing legal framework of bilateral cooperation and on the EU level.
The signatories also pledged to strengthen trilateral contacts at the level of prime ministers’ national security advisers and develop liaison and coordination channels to share information, including the use of early warning mechanisms.
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland reaffirmed their readiness to share information and analysis on the hybrid attacks by Russia and Belarus, cooperate on identifying those responsible for hybrid attacks and take joint action to prevent them.
The three countries are particularly concerned about undocumented migration from Africa and Asia via Belarus and the overflights of weather balloons and drones carrying contraband cigarettes from the neighboring country.
The irregular migration crisis on the Belarus-EU border has been ongoing since early 2021 after Alaksandar Łukašenka, angered by EU sanctions, had indicated that Minsk would not prevent asylum seekers from Africa and Asia from using Belarus as a route to the EU.
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland call the migration crisis a “hybrid attack” orchestrated by Minsk and Moscow.
Cigarette-smuggling by air caused significant tensions between Lithuania and Belarus last year. In December, Vilnius declared an “extreme situation,” a low-level emergency, in response to what it called “a hybrid attack from Belarus.”
Belarus-EU border sees renewed increase in irregular crossings
February 23, Pozirk. The neighboring European Union countries thwarted 59 attempts by third-country foreigners to cross irregularly via Belarus in the first three weeks of February, according to Pozirk's analysis of border guards' data. Attempts more than doubled from January’s …
