He made this statement after two days of negotiations with Lukashenko. Says the latter agreed to “do everything possible to stop these balloons.”
The agency recalled that these balloons are used by cigarette smugglers; their flights have led to the closure of more than a dozen Vilnius airports in recent months.
After Lithuania accused Belarus of carrying out a hybrid attack, facilitating the activity and declaring a state of emergency, Lukashenko said Lithuania was exaggerating the problem, the article said.
Cole stressed that he considers Lukashenko’s attempt to calm the situation sincere. He expressed the opinion that this will take some time, but it can be solved. According to Trump’s special envoy, the illegitimate president of Belarus “wants normal relations with his neighbors,” at least that’s what he assures him.
Cole noted that Lithuania has done everything possible to stop smuggling from Belarus and both sides are working on the problem.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on December 1 that the situation on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border is deteriorating and called the balloon invasion an “absolutely unacceptable” hybrid attack on the part of Belarus, the agency concluded.
Context
On the night of October 22, several dozen balloons carrying contraband hit Lithuania, which disrupted the work of the airport in Vilnius. Lithuania also temporarily closed the Medininkai and Šalčininkai checkpoints. Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė then threatened that if such balloons crossed the Lithuanian border again en masse, Vilnius would immediately react and close the Lithuanian border with Belarus.
On October 24, Ruginienė reported that in the evening all border crossings with Belarus were closed due to a large group of balloons, and the airports of Vilnius and Kaunas had to be temporarily closed. The State Customs Committee of Belarus called the closure of the border with Lithuania “another decision of the adjacent party without prior notification” of Minsk.
On the night of October 26, due to weather balloons, the Lithuanian side again closed checkpoints on the border with Belarus. In addition, flights at Vilnius airport were stopped. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda proposes to close the border with Belarus for a long period and limit transit to Kaliningrad.
27 October Ruginene stated that the Lithuanian government had prepared a decision to close the border with Belarus for an indefinite period and did not reject the possibility activation art. 4 of the NATO Treaty, which provides for consultations within the Alliance if any state believes that it is under threat and requires a joint response.
