The Kremlin was concerned about the Klaipeda deep-water port project: you will not survive without us

In early April, the media were informed that the deepwater outer port project at Melnrage would not be developed “at least for the next decade.” The Ministers of Environment and Transport announced this and agreed to review the decisions of the General Plan of the territory of Lithuania.

This decision did not ignore the disinformation directed against Lithuania to the famous portals RuBaltic and Baltnews, where they rushed to look for the reasons for this decision in the Lithuanian foreign policy. The decision to postpone deliberations on the deep-sea outer port was due to the country’s reduced relations with Russia and Belarus due to reduced cargo transit from these countries, and disagreements between the country’s top politicians and China destroyed the opportunities to attract private investors.

There is a lack of clear data.

The possibility of installing an external deep-water port in Lithuania has been debated for several years. Proponents of the idea say that such a port would make it possible to serve the higher tonnage tankers that can enter the Baltic Sea, reduce the intensity of ship traffic in the port channel, thus guaranteeing greater maritime safety and allowing the expansion of transshipment sites. From containers.

However, the project was accompanied by local community concerns about the impact of the port development and related infrastructure on their living environment, as well as environmental issues.
The general plan of the port of Klaipeda was approved a couple of years ago. It was previously estimated that the outer port project could have cost around $ 800 million. euros. At that time, there was concern for the Giruliai forest, where the development of the railway infrastructure is planned, preparing to lift almost all the load from the center of the port city by 2030.

Outraged that these plans may require cutting down 30 to 50 hectares of forest in Giruliai Forest, the previous government amended the draft resolution last July and named the territories of the Klaipėda district as possible railway development zones. Lithuanian Railways, for its part, said they were not considering development at Giruliai.

An official statement issued in early April indicates that the Environment Ministry and the Transport and Communications Ministry agreed to abandon the remaining ambiguous provisions by prioritizing the construction of an external deepwater port in Melnrage. After clarifying the solutions of the general plan of the territory of the Republic of Lithuania, the outer port will not be developed for at least the next decade. At the same time, it is no longer planned to cross the Giruliai forest due to the railway crossing.

The Minister of Transport and Communications, Marius Skuodis, stated that, firstly, the existing capacity of the Klaipeda port must be used and, finally, it must be answered whether the external port is possible from an environmental point of view.

“The medium-term priorities for the expansion of the port are its dredging, development of new territories in the southern part of the port, better use of cargo capacity. We could return to the issue of the outer port only in the future, ”said the Minister of Transport and Communications.

Environment Minister Simonas Gentvilas also spoke on environmental issues, saying that the environmental cost of building an outer port would be very high: “We will not hang the outer port in the air, so we closed the discussion for a long time. We decide the next quarter. Now let’s think about the development in the southern part of the port. “

The development of the outer deep-water port is foreseen in the concept of the general plan of the territory of the Republic of Lithuania approved by the Seimas last June: the vision of the development of the country until 2050. Now the priority of the general plan of the territory of the Republic of Lithuania is given to the internal development of the port, and the issue of the external port is postponed in the plan for almost a decade.

At the same time, the solutions no longer foresee the logging of the Giruliai forest for the development of the railway crossing. Due to the decisions that determine the situation of the Giruliai forest, in order to preserve the forest to the maximum, the decisions of the general plan of the territory of the Republic of Lithuania provide to specify the priority of the conservation of the Giruliai forest.

Emotions are important, not facts

Tomas Janeliūnas, a professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science at Vilnius University, said that the idea of ​​a deep-sea port project had received controversial evaluations before, Belarus or Russia had little to do with the idea of ​​a water port. deep

According to T. Janeliūnas, these attempts by the Russian media to intertwine the Klaipeda port project and the transit from the East are nothing more than an attempt to discredit Lithuania’s foreign policy.

“One of the highlights of Russian propaganda is attempts to emphasize that Lithuania is highly dependent on cargo from Belarus and Russia, and closer relations with its eastern neighbors are extremely detrimental to the Lithuanian economy.

This is a typical disinformation line designed to establish the negative idea that Lithuania’s foreign policy is not financially profitable for the people of the country. Such clichés of misinformation have been repeatedly denied by elemental statistics, but the overall narrative does not change, ”said T. Janeliūnas.

The Chinese factor, which is no longer discussed not only in the United States, which competes with the country, but also in Lithuania, has not brought less controversy to the discussions about the port project.

“The deep-sea port of Klaipeda has long been considered controversial. Its visions have long been related to Chinese investment and Lithuania’s involvement in the China-backed One Way, One Lane project: it was thought that if Chinese goods were flowing through Lithuania, new handling capacity would be needed. In recent years, however, it has been recognized that Chinese investment and potential port control would be very detrimental to safety. As attitudes change from Lithuania towards relations with China, the assessment of investment prospects also changes, ”added the political scientist.

According to the professor, the Belarusian authorities’ decision to divert cargo from Klaipeda to Russian ports has nothing to do with the idea of ​​a deep-sea port project.

“The diversion of Belarusian cargo from the port of Klaipeda is a completely different issue and is not related to the prospects of a deep-water port. However, this is not the first time that Russian propaganda has simply forced different things on the same cauldron – after all, emotions are important for misinformation messages, not facts, ”said T. Janeliūnas.