Ingrida Šimonytė: Lithuania Will Find Way To Terminate Contract With Belaruskali

The Prime Minister has addressed the deputies of the Seimas.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė says the government will find a way to terminate the contract with Belaruskali on transit of fertilizers, so that the Lithuanian side would not be at risk of financial losses.

She said this, speaking in the Seimas.

"I want to stress that the U.S. sanctions, which are primary and are applied to the American companies, have no direct effect in Lithuania, so we do not need to consider the application of sanctions, as it seems to many, but the validity of the contract. That's a different matter altogether. We will definitely find solutions to the contract termination in such a way that the Republic of Lithuania is at risk of the least financial damage," Delfi quoted Šimonytė.

Earlier it was reported that the state-owned company Lithuanian Railways would continue transportation of Belaruskali cargo in December despite the U.S. sanctions against the Belarusian company.

After the publication of this information, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis and Minister of Transport and Communications Marius Skuodis said they were ready to resign if Belaruskali, currently under U.S. sanctions, had really made an advance payment to the Lithuanian Railway after the sanctions had come into force.

Ingrida Šimonytė said she has not yet made a decision on the resignation of the head of Landsbergis and Skuodis. She promised to let me know when she makes a decision. It will probably be next week.

"I really appreciate that ministers, regardless of how you interpret what you think and what you think about the situation, still value their political responsibility above any ministerial position," she said.