Lithuanian PM says he lacks details of US Belarus fertilizer deal

Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius says he has no information about a possible agreement between the United States and Belarus on fertilizer purchases, LRT reported on Monday, citing BNS. “The details of a possible US Belarus agreement on the purchase of fertilizers are currently unknown to the Lithuanian government, so it would be too early to comment on it in greater detail,” his adviser Gedas Salyga said.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Washington was working on a major agreement to purchase fertilizer from Belarus. He said the deal would allow US companies to pay less for fertilizer than they currently do when buying it from Canada.

Trump described the emerging agreement, which has not yet been detailed, as “very good news” for US farmers. He made the announcement after John Coale, the US special envoy to Belarus, visited Minsk again last week.

The United States lifted sanctions this year that had been imposed on Belarusian fertilizer at the beginning of the decade. However, the US still lacked the means to import the products because of restrictions on the transit of goods from Belarus.

Before the sanctions were imposed, Belarusian fertilizer was transported through the port of Klaipėda. Senior Lithuanian officials have remained sceptical about restoring the transit, citing both continuing European Union sanctions on fertilizer and an unwillingness to provide revenue opportunities to companies linked to the Belarusian regime.

Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys told BNS last week that Lithuania and the United States had differing positions on easing sanctions against Belarus, but he did not mention fertilizer in that context.

Foreign media reported earlier this year that US officials had asked Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash fertilizer to allow the product to transit their territories.