News

On 18 September in Druskininkai, Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Petras Vaitiekūnas and Mayor of Druskininkai Ričardas Malinauskas discussed ways to take advantage of geographical proximity between Druskininkai and Belarus.

P.Vaitiekūnas stressed that Lithuanian diplomacy, first and foremost, served Lithuanian national interests, including not just political, but also interests of the economy of the whole country, as well as of every region. The Minister and the Mayor of Druskininkai discussed possibilities to make use of Lithuanian diplomatic representations in presenting tourism possibilities and the potential of the economy of various municipalities.

The Head of Lithuanian diplomacy indicated that our country was seeking to make full use of the opportunities that the Schengen acquis offered, so that the residents of Belarus could continue to travel to Lithuania at the minimum estimated cost of visas. The Schengen acquis allows issuing border permits for up to 5 years, granted to residents in border areas that extend up to 50 km from the border line. It is intended to make full use of this possibility.

Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized that Lithuania invited Belarus to continue optimizing the procedures of border crossing.

Seeking to avail of the potential of the river Nemunas maximally, it was agreed to work together developing the river Nemunas navigation between Grodno and Druskininkai. Diplomats will initiate all the necessary agreements with Belarus. Moreover, they will also raise the issue of building the infrastructure of the international Švendubrė-Pervalkas river border crossing point. Lithuania and Belarus have signed agreements concerning the establishing of new border crossings and internal navigation.

During the meeting with the Minister, Mayor of Druskininkai R.Malinauskas set forth an idea to reopen the former Druskininkai airport and to construct a bicycle path between Druskininkai and Grodno.