Lithuania considers denouncing border agreement with Belarus

Lithuania’s parliament, the Seimas, has begun discussions on denouncing a non-ratified agreement with Belarus on cross-border travel for residents of border areas, reports LRT.

The agreement, signed in Minsk in 2010 and ratified by Lithuania a year later, was intended to allow border-area residents to cross the border with special permits and stay in the other country’s border territory for up to 90 days within a six-month period. However, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Vidmantas Verbickas, Belarus never ratified or notified Lithuania, leaving the agreement in limbo.

“In other words, the goodwill interest of our citizens was not reciprocated. Today, we certainly see no possibility for this agreement to function further,” Verbickas told lawmakers, presenting the proposal to denounce it. He added that the Foreign Ministry considers the 15-year-old agreement obsolete for both sides and thus recommends its denouncement.

Verbickas stated that denouncing the agreement aligns with Lithuania’s consistent foreign policy and national security interests. Arminas Lydeka, a member of the Seimas Foreign Affairs Committee, supported the proposal, arguing that maintaining such an agreement with Belarus—under the authoritarian leadership of Alexander Lukashenko, which has orchestrated hybrid attacks against Lithuania—is unacceptable.

The proposal was unanimously backed by 86 MPs. It will now be reviewed by the main Foreign Affairs Committee, with plans to return to the Seimas for further discussion by the end of June.