Lithuania has countered Belarus sanctions easing for three months, envoy says

May 2, BPN. The Baltic countries and Poland continue to oppose concessions sought by some EU members, said Arnoldas Pranckevičius, Lithuania’s ambassador to the European Union.

“For three months we have been very strongly opposed to the suggested fertilizer derogation, because we believe that it weakens the sanctions package and does not solve the problem, only gives the Belarusian regime an opportunity to finance its activities,” Pranckevičius told LRT.

He said a group of EU members, including Portugal, argue that Belarusian fertilizers are needed to fight food shortages in developing countries, but the Baltic countries and Poland do not subscribe to this argument.

“Our proposal is to address the issues through trade policy, trying to find alternative sources, investing in production potential in Africa and elsewhere and fundamentally overhauling supply chains,” he said.

Sanctions against Belarusian potash were imposed as part of a sectoral package in 2021.

Last winter, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union might impose new sanctions on Alaksandr Łukašenka’s regime for its support of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The EU then hit Russia with the 10th sanctions package, which didn’t mention Belarus.

In March, Poland suggested that the bloc should immediately sanction Minsk because of its prosecution of prominent human rights defender Aleś Bialacki and other activists.

The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, later said that the union “stands ready to respond with further sanctions” to the expected deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus.