Lithuania should withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines, Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas stated, BNS reports. He expects the Defence Ministry and Foreign Ministry to resolve the issue. Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene said that the goal was to have a regional solution. Earlier, she said that military advice would be the key element in…
Latvia would support Estonia or Finland if they requested consultations with allies under NATO’s Article 4, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics announced, LETA reports. He was responding to questions about the recent sabotage of undersea power and data cables in the Baltic Sea. Rinkevics stressed the need for bolstering the physical presence of NATO allied forces…
The possible closure of the Baltic Sea should “remain on the table,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics stated, LETA reports. Speaking in an interview with TV3, Rinkevics addressed the issue of protecting critical infrastructure, stressing the need to increase patrols and impose sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet. However, he noted that almost 2,000 vessels travel through…
Estonian President Alar Karis has rejected an amendment to the law on the use of natural resources, ERR reports. The legislative changes would suspend oil shale mining permits until 2026, allowing time to assess the industry’s compliance with EU climate goals. The president argued that the amendment ran counter to the Constitution and imposed disproportionate…
Estonia’s former president, Arnold Rüütel, died on New Year’s Eve at the age of 96, ERR reports. He will be buried with full state honours. Rüütel was born on the island of Saaremaa in 1928. He was chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in occupied Estonia in 1983-1990, chairman of the Supreme Soviet…
Lithuania’s conservative Homeland Union plans to ask the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of President Gitanas Nauseda’s decree approving an incomplete cabinet of ministers, BNS reports. Homeland Union MP Mindaugas Linge argued that the formation of an incomplete government annuls the deadlines for the appointment of ministers who have not been appointed, which…
Lithuania’s state-owned company, KN Energies, has acquired the LNG carrier, Independence, from Norway’s Höegh Evi (former Höegh LNG) for EUR 138mn, BNS reports. The handover ceremony was attended by the presidents of all three Baltic States and Poland. The floating storage regasification unit (FSRU), which serves as Lithuania’s LNG terminal, arrived at the port of…
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has approved the country’s new cabinet of ministers, BNS reports. He described the incoming centre-left government as more capable than the outgoing centre-right government of Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte. The Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) will hold the post of prime minister and will have nine ministers in the new government,…
Lithuania’s incoming prime minister, Gintautas Paluckas, said that he was not informed about the government’s decision to expel three Chinese diplomats, BNS reports. He said that the consequences of the move remained to be seen, noting that diplomatic relations with China were already “practically non-existent.” China has warned that the expulsions could lead to retaliatory…