On 20 October Presidents of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite and of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko are meeting in Minsk. According to the information provided by press service of Lukashenko, the key issue for the negotiations is the “development of commercial-economic cooperation”. Moreover, the Presidents are going “to exchange opinions on relevant international agenda”, wrote НГ (independent paper).

For achieving the strategic goals on the diversification of energy sources Belarus has to coordinate its intentions concerning the construction of the NPP with the neighbouring Lithuania, located in close vicinity from the border, where the NPP is going to be built. So far Lithuania has not given its mandatory in this case consent for the implementation of this project. As reported earlier, Lithuania, being in need of power supply in relation to the closing down of the Ignalina NPP, offered to Belarus building the NPP together, however, the reaction of the official Minsk towards this proposal is not yet pronounced.

Meanwhile the construction of the NPP is a distant perspective yet. In the nearest future Lithuania is planning to satisfy its demand in electric power supply by purchasing it from the Ukraine. For making it possible, Belarus has to give its consent for transit. This issue is under discussions for a long time. In the beginning the Parties could not agree on the price. Then Belarus has announced it is not going to allow transit of the Ukrainian power to Lithuania, but is ready to buy it from Kiev and sell it to Vilnius, provoking outrage as from one party as from the other.

Considering that the President of Lithuania is representing in Minsk not only her own country, but at the same time the European Union as well, it may be assumed that discussions will touch the issue about the coming Presidential elections. All experts unanimously agree that the arrival of the head of the European state in Belarus on the eve of the elections is a huge political advance for Lukashenko.

It should be noted that Lukashenko visited Lithuania last year. It was his first official visit to an European state after the period of international isolation. On the eve of the visit of Lukashenko Dalia Grybauskaite admitted that the possibility of this visit has been coordinated with Brussels. Most probably the reciprocal visit of the Lithuanian President was possible only after similar agreement.

Material has been prepared by the Centre of Geopolitical Studies with reference to the article from «Росбалт» of 20 10 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.