Asta Andijauskiene, the authorized clerk of Lithuania in Belarus, who was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania on Tuesday, was informed about it.
“Giving seemingly official status to illegitimate entities will also remain an illusory attempt to create a parallel reality,” the statement issued by the Belarussian Foreign Ministry said.
Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Mants Adomens told Lithuanian public television that after the downsizing, only one Lithuanian diplomat will work in Belarus to deal with consular issues. This actually means closing the embassy, Adom added.
The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is preparing response measures and will be informed about them later, Vītaute Šmaižīte-Kuļešiene, the press secretary of the Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrieļus Landsbergs, told the news agency BNS.
Commenting on Belarus’ decision to force Lithuania to reduce its diplomatic staff to a minimum, Lithuanian President Gitan Nauseda said on Wednesday that the Belarusian regime continues to isolate itself and cares only for its own survival.
“This is just a sign of the Belarussian regime’s desire to isolate itself and become even more dependent on its big neighbor,” Nauseda told reporters in Vilnius.
“Such efforts to isolate oneself, to isolate oneself from the world around them, usually end in misery, to the detriment of the country itself and its people,” he added.
The situation shows that the interests of the Belarusian people and civil society are what “the Belarusian regime is least interested in,” the Lithuanian president said.
“The regime is only concerned about its survival at all costs,” Nauseda stressed.
It has already been reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania accredited the democratic representation of Belarus on Monday, thus granting official status to the team of Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlan Cihanouska working in Vilnius.
The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that this is a symbolic step in the legal recognition of Belarusian civil society and its efforts to bring about democratic change in its country, but the accredited institution will not be considered a diplomatic mission and will not have the same rights and privileges as diplomatic missions.
Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, was declared the winner of the presidential election last August, but Western countries consider the election to be rigged. Cihanoouska is thought to have won more votes than Lukashenko.
After the election, the Lukashenko regime forced Cihanouska to leave Belarus, and she lives in Vilnius, where she has set up her office.
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