Vilnius notified Minsk of the termination of cooperation to ensure the uninterrupted movement of transport across the border, the State Border Committee of Belarus said.
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“The State Border Protection Service under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania unilaterally terminates cooperation with the customs and border services of the Republic of Belarus to ensure an uninterrupted flow of transport across the border and increase the capacity of road checkpoints,” the press service said in a statement.
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The reasons for this decision are not specified in the notification, the State Border Committee noted.
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The official representative of the department, Anton Bychkovsky, called Lithuania’s actions an unfriendly and unconstructive step.
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“In fact, it is aimed at not having obligations to the Belarusian side in terms of uninterrupted and rhythmic work of checkpoints,” he told.
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Minsk and Vilnius signed an agreement on cross-border traffic in November 2019.
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However, lately Belarusian border guards have repeatedly noted accumulations of cars at the border, as neighboring countries do not comply with the pass norms. The most significant decrease was noted in April – compared to the previous month, the rate of registration of heavy trucks for entry to Latvia decreased by 42 percent, to Poland – by 22 percent, to Lithuania – by 20 percent.
