Lithuanian Foreign Minister: What is more important: human rights or freight traffic in Klaipeda?
Foreign Minister of Lithuania Linas Linkevicius presented his own opinion on the Lithuania-Belarus relations in an interview on Morning Topic programme on 10 January.
The minister thinks that “Belarusians are our partners. Both
Lithuania and the EU can and should talk to them.” “Only in this
case we will be able to see changes,” DELFI new agency quotes
Linkevicius.
“When it comes to the question of what has more
importance: human rights or freight traffic in Klaipeda, we should
not regard it as the black and white situation. Everything is
important. We are not going to place economic interests above human
rights. But freight traffic in Klaipeda is important both for
Lithuania and Belarus. Economic cooperation unite nations, makes them
have a more constructive dialogue and makes pragmatic people think
about obstacles for cooperation. These obstacles are political
prisoners, human rights abuses and other things. Some think Belarus
should be surrounded by the “wall”, isolated and punished, but I
personally have another opinion. We should not build walls. We should
find a way to influence our colleagues, talk and cooperate more. I
feel we can talk to them,” the new minister said.
The MFA
chief agreed that Lithuania is the gateway to the West for Belarus.
“We give about 1,000 visas per day for Belarusians. This is a
factory of issuing visas. As a former ambassador, I can say that
almost one third of visas are free. I mean visas for sportsmen, young
people, businessmen, let alone accidents and so on. We do our best
for Belarusians to see the world and Europe more easily. They can go
to Europe through us.”
Linkevicius was an ambassador to
Belarus from 24 July to 28 November 2012. He was relieved of his
duties of the ambassador and appointed minister of foreign affairs of
Lithuania.