Vilnius, Nov 19 (IANS) The Lithuanian government decided on Wednesday to reopen the border with Belarus earlier than planned, the Baltic News Service (BNS) reported.
The Salcininkai-Benyakoni and Medininkai-Kamenny Log border checkpoints have been temporarily closed for more than two weeks.
Their operations will resume on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported. Interior Minister Vladislavas Kondratovicius said at a cabinet meeting that, following the National Security Commission’s decisions, the circumstances had changed and the border restrictions imposed on Oct. 29 were no longer necessary to ensure domestic security.
“It is therefore appropriate to lift the restrictions on crossing the border set out in the government resolution,” he said.
The Cabinet closed the border with Belarus, with certain exceptions, on October 30 for one month in response to a civil aviation threat posed by smugglers’ balloons.
The Salcininkai-Benyakoni checkpoint was fully closed, while traffic through the Medininkai-Kamenny Log checkpoint was restricted.
After Poland reopened two of its Belarus border checkpoints on Monday, Lithuanian and Belarusian border officials held technical talks on Tuesday on returning stranded Lithuanian trucks, as well as on smuggling and migrant issues, according to BNS.
In October, Poland had enforced extended border controls with Germany and Lithuania for six months.
Poland introduced the temporary border controls on July 7 at its western border with Germany and northeastern border with Lithuania, later extending them to October 4. Checks are conducted at 50 points along the Polish-German border and 13 along the Polish-Lithuanian border, according to the Polish Press Agency.
The Polish government had stated that country has already paid a heavy price for guarding the bloc’s external border, with nearly 25,000 illegal crossings recorded on the border with Belarus till the start of October.
–IANS
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