The issue of transporting the Venezuelan oil through the ports of Latvia was raised for discussions at the Belarusian-Latvian intergovernmental commission on commercial-economic cooperation, the meeting of which was held on 29-30 September in Minsk.

As reported to the agency by the PRIME-TASS source in the national authorities of Belarus, Venezuelan gas is currently supplied to Belarus through the Estonian port Muuga and the Lithuanian port Klaipeda.

“So far the supplies are based on one-time contracts. The Belarusian side is interested in organising the supply on long-term agreements via pipelines. From this point of view the proposals from Latvian ports are interesting for us, in particular from Ventspils, as oil may be transported via the existing pipeline Ventspils – Polock” – said the speaker.

He reminded that this pipeline has not been used for transporting oil since the 1^st January of 2003. “However, it is not easy to reach agreement on this issue, considering the formed structure of shareholders in the oil terminal of Ventspils Nafta, and also the condition that co-owner of the pipeline on the territory of Latvia is the Russian company “Transneft””,- clarified the representative of the agency.

Last week the 5^th International Belarusian-Latvian Investment Forum “The Baltic Region – 2010” was held in Riga, alongside with the 8^th National Exhibition of Belarus in Latvia “BelarusEXPO -2010” and the Baltic Economic Forum “The EU Baltic Strategy on the competitiveness of the region”, where Prime Minister of Belarus Sergej Sidorskij was taking part.

Material has been prepared by the Centre of Geopolitical Studies with reference to the article from «Телеграф.lv» of 29 09 2010

For effective complex defence of Latvia, the establishment of a permanent division of the National Armed Forces has started in Latgale, reported the official website of the Ministry of Defence.

On 13 January a concert "Together to the victory" was held in Lithuania, where the audience decided to support Ukraine's defence and donated 110 thousand Euros.

Alexander Lukashenko on 9 January signed a decree № 8 "On the establishment of visa-free entry and exit of foreign nationals." The document establishes visa-free entry to Belarus for a period not exceeding 5 days at the entrance through the checkpoint "National Airport Minsk" for citizens of 80 countries, - reported the press service of the President of Belarus.