Annual events in the neighborhood: the migrant crisis, the slump in relations with China and the unrest near the Seimas

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The most important events and developments in Lithuania last year were the crisis of illegal migration, the slack in relations with China and the riots in the Seimas in August, journalists surveyed by the BNS news agency said, acknowledging that the government led by Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonīte had to work hard this year.

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Almost thirty journalists from BNS itself, news portals, TV channels and radio stations took part in the survey.

“The influx of migrants from Belarus has put enormous pressure on the Lithuanian authorities, but at the same time [Baltkrievijas diktatora] The efforts of the Alexander Lukashenko regime to fuel this crisis have helped Vilnius to unite the political and practical support of its Western partners and to pay even more attention to security and other issues in the region, ”said Saulius Jakučonis, Deputy Director of BNS.

“The government of Šimonīte has had to face so many challenges this year that no other cabinet seems to have experienced in one year,” said Roma Pakēniene, editor of BNS’s business news department.

The editor of the Alfa.lt portal, Ovīdijs Lukošus, believes that the influx of migrants to Lithuanian politicians and responsible bureaucrats has fallen “like snow on his head”, although in fact such risks have been known for a long time.

More than 4,200 migrants who have crossed the Belarusian border illegally have been detained in Lithuania this year, but since August 3, when the border guards began to force migrants to return, border guards have been banned from crossing the border more than 8,000 times. Lithuanian officials point out that the Belarussian regime is deliberately facilitating the flow of migrants across the border, as Lithuania supports the democratic opposition in Belarus.

According to the media, tensions in Lithuania’s relations with China have been long overdue, but have intensified in recent months as Lithuania seeks new partners in East Asia and the ruling center-right coalition seeks to defend “those fighting for freedom, from Belarus to Taiwan.”

Lithuania announced this year that it was withdrawing from the 17 + 1 format of economic and political co-operation important to China, which mainly involves Central and Eastern European countries, as the Lithuanian Seimas acknowledged that the persecution of Uighurs in China was tantamount to genocide. to allow Taiwan to establish a representation in Lithuania using the word “Taiwan” in its name, as China is trying to prevent any attempt by Taiwan to act as an independent state.

For this reason, China has lowered the level of diplomatic relations with Lithuania and extended various restrictions on economic relations between the two sides, which are seen as informal sanctions.

Viktorija Hockevičūte, editor of the economics section of the news portal Delfi.lt, predicts that if this pressure from Beijing does not ease, the consequences for Lithuania may be even more pronounced – corporate revenues may fall, production costs may rise and investors’ interest in the country may decline.

“The question arises as to whether, as the tensions between Lithuania and China continue, the European Union would take further steps, what they would be and how China would react to them,” she added.

According to Aurim Perednis, a journalist at Žiniu Radio, Lithuania’s efforts to build closer relations with Taiwan show that Vilnius is trying to gain as much political attention and support from the United States as possible without fear of losing investment and revenue.

“This game was not invented by our government, it is an American game – to move towards confrontation with China and try to stop its growing influence, we are trying to adapt to it and benefit ourselves,” he said.

As the third most important event of the year, journalists have highlighted the riots that erupted on August 10 near the Seimas building in Vilnius, where a protest took place against the government’s plans to impose strict restrictions on people who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 or tested. At the end of the Seimas sitting and the officially allowed time of the protest, several hundred people blocked all the exits of the parliament building and some of them behaved quite aggressively until the riots in the clashes with the police.

These were the most violent clashes near the Seimas since 2009, and Austėja Masjokaite-Ļubiniene, the deputy editor of the Lithuanian news department of the BNS agency, became the culmination of a long-standing tension and disagreement among dissenters.

According to her, this has revealed to many how deep the contradictions really are, which are likely to remain relevant in the future, both in terms of vaccination and pandemic control measures, and in terms of human rights issues and the concept of the family.

According to Tads Ignatavičs, a spokesman for Lietuvos rytas, the government has failed to live up to expectations that it will do better than before. According to him, after the initial strict quarantine, further decisions regarding its relaxation were delayed, they lacked flexibility and a clear vision, the responsibility was transferred to the shoulders of local governments.

Assessing the most significant events in the world last year, Lithuanian journalists cited the Belarusian regime’s crackdown on opposition, including the transfer of a Ryanair plane to Minsk and the arrest of journalist and activist Roman Protasevich, the fall of the Afghan government in Russia borders.

According to Jūrate Skerīte, Deputy Editor of BNS Lithuania, the diversion of a Ryanair plane and the arrest of Protasevich have shown how dangerous and unpredictable Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian leader of the neighboring country, is, and soon confirmed by the Minsk regime’s illegal migration process. in a humanitarian crisis.

“Paradoxically, the Lukashenko regime teaches the European Union cohesion, unity and flexibility,” she said.

Commenting on the fall of the Afghan government, Raimunds Celencevičs, head of the news department of the 15min.lt portal, admitted that it had drawn attention to many issues concerning the ability of the West, especially the United States, to deal with violent conflicts, resolve them and spread democratic values.

Commemorating the end of the Merkel era in Germany, Lithuanian public radio journalist Marjus Jokūbaitis has called it a sort of alarming message to the world’s democratic community that a symbol of compromise is leaving the scene and no one in Europe can take over.

According to Vytautas Bruveris, an observer at Lietuvos Rytas, Russia’s threat to Ukraine with a large-scale invasion and war and the collapse of the Belarussian regime show that the situation in Central and Eastern Europe is becoming increasingly unstable and dangerous.

“Changes in the policies of the main transatlantic countries of the Western Axis, the United States and Germany (…), raise the question of the extent to which the West, if we can still talk about such a geopolitical entity, can not only avert the challenges posed by both our region’s dictatorships. , and regimes like China, but also to dictate their own rules of the game, ”he said.

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