Lithuania seeks EU help returning trucks from Belarus, proposes new sanctions

MINSK. Dec 2 (Interfax) - Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys and Transport Minister Juras Taminskas have asked the European Commission to help recover trucks stranded in Belarus and to impose additional sanctions on Minsk, Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT reported.

The ministers called on the EC "to develop a coherent EU action plan to support European hauliers currently stuck in Belarus and to address the security risks posed by unmanned aerial objects - including contraband-carrying balloons - along the Lithuanian-Belarusian border," the report said.

They requested the EC's "support in advancing Lithuania's proposed new sanctions on Belarus," and called on the commission "to demand at the EU level for the full and unconditional release of European hauliers' trucks being unlawfully detained on the Belarusian side."

Relations between Belarus and Lithuania deteriorated in October, when Vilnius decided to close checkpoints on the border with Belarus until the end of November in response to an increase in smuggling of cigarettes to Lithuania using weather balloons, which periodically leads to the suspension of operations at the Vilnius airport.

However, this left about 1,800 Lithuanian trucks, as well as truck trailers and semi-trailers, stranded in Belarus. The Belarusian government initially restricted their movement, but then decided to let the drivers go and leave the trucks at impound lots. In order to return the trucks, Lithuania decided to open the border early and did so on November 20, but this did not solve the problem. Minsk is demanding talks at the diplomatic level, but Vilnius is refusing.