State Border Committee: EU threatening new restrictions on Belarus’ border

The EU neighbouring countries ignore diplomacy and threaten new restrictions on the border with Belarus, the State Border Committee reports in its Telegram channel

According to Belarus’ State Border Committee, the EU countries continue to publicly discuss problems on the European border, without making efforts to find solutions to them. "Despite Belarus' initiatives to develop constructive dialogue and establish bilateral contacts, our neighbours are coming up with reasons for introducing new restrictions," it said.

The source added that, by analogy with Poland and Lithuania, Latvian officials are talking about the possible closure of the Silene checkpoint (Urbany on the Belarusian side) on the border with Belarus. The neighbouring country explains this decision by ‘an increasing number of refugees in the Latvian border area’.

"Using hackneyed rhetoric about migration pressure from the territory of Belarus, the Latvian side does not provide relevant evidence and does not try to resolve the situation through the diplomacy,” it stressed.

It is reported that the State Border Committee did not receive information from Latvian colleagues with facts confirming the accusation. It believes that ignoring the mechanism of bilateral co-operation does not solve the existing problems, and additional restrictions will create new barriers for citizens and cargo carriers.