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“I would like to appeal once again to the Lithuanian leaders from this site, the Belarusian nuclear power plant: let’s live in a friendly way. Let us work together,” he emphasized, addressing the staff and builders of the power plant; his words were quoted by the state news agency BelTA.
According to A. Lukashenko, Belarusians and Lithuanians used to live together “normally”, both in the only state that existed and “until now”.
“It just came to our notice then. Well, well, if you realize that you are wrong, leave our garden, let’s work together: you in your garden, we in yours. Let’s produce electricity, sell, exchange electricity. Let’s live normally! We are neighbors and there are no neighbors, ”he said.
Lukashenko asked Warsaw to make the same call.
“It just came to our notice then. We will not kneel. We will respond, and I have already said it: even if we are left alone in the environment, we will respond. I think they understood. Let’s work together, we are willing to cooperate openly,” he said.
The Astrava power plant opens in Belarus after high tensions following the controversial presidential elections on August 9. The opposition and western democracies, including Lithuania and Poland, see these elections as rigged. The European Union, the United States, and some other countries have imposed sanctions on the Minsk regime for electoral fraud and violence against its citizens.
Massive demonstrations have been taking place in the country for almost three months, during which Lukashenko, 66, who has led the country since 1994, has been asked to resign. He also calls for the release of political prisoners and the holding of new elections .
Furthermore, the Astrava nuclear power plant project has sparked a political conflict between Belarus and Lithuania that has been going on for several years, making the power plant unsafe and urging the world community to pressure Lukashenko to stop your construction.
When the nuclear power plant started producing electricity, Lithuania immediately stopped trading with Belarus. However, physically electricity will continue to flow to the Baltic market because it is in deficit.
Lithuania has not yet approved a unified methodology for trilateral electricity trade with Russia, Latvia has promised to start trading with Russia through a common connection from November 5.
A protest note from the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry (MFA) sent to Minsk on Wednesday condemned Belarus’s actions, which pose a nuclear and environmental threat not only to Belarus or Lithuania, but also to Europe as a whole.
Vilnius called on Belarus to suspend the operation of the nuclear power plant until the highest standards of nuclear safety and environmental requirements are met.
The note also recalls that Astrava NPP violates the international conventions of Espoo and Aarhus, the recommendations of the European Union during the stress test process have not been implemented.
At the time, Minsk constantly emphasized that the Astrava power plant would help reduce the amount of fossil energy resources imported from Russia – oil and gas. Belarus is expected to reduce its Russian gas consumption by 5 billion euros when the nuclear power plant becomes fully operational. puppy. meters per year; this represents about a quarter of total annual gas imports.
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