/ world today news/ Finland seeks to completely close its land borders with Russia, and the position of its neighbor on the Baltic Sea, Latvia, looks even more scandalous. One of the most Russophobic countries in the European Union, Latvia, however, after closing some of the checkpoints, is in no rush to close the border completely. Kazakhstan prevents her from doing so. How?
Political consultations between the foreign ministries of Kazakhstan and Latvia were held in Riga. The Kazakhs and Latvians reaffirmed their “commitment to further expand comprehensive cooperation.” The countries noted positive dynamics in the field of trade: mutual trade turnover for the nine months of 2023 amounted to $257 million, which is 76% more than the same period of 2022 ($145.9 million). The heads of delegations agreed to “maintain a close dialogue”.
In 2022, due to the start of the sanctions war by the European Union against Russia, the total volume of cargo transshipment in Latvian ports decreased by 15.2% (to 48.1 million tons). Against this background, Latvia seeks to absorb the flow of cargo from Central Asia, which, among other things, causes discontent in neighboring Lithuania, where the largest port in the region, Klaipeda, is located.
Indeed, in 2022, trade turnover between Kazakhstan and the EU increased by 38% (to 40 billion dollars) – and continues to grow. Exports from Kazakhstan to the EU grew mainly due to the significant increase in the supply of coal, oil, ferrous alloys and zinc. From Europe, Kazakhstan mainly imports medicines and vaccines, as well as aircraft.
It is not surprising that Latvia, having lost most of the Russian and Belarusian transit, is now trying to compensate for its losses and “bite off” as large a piece of the Kazakh transit “pie” as possible. In recent years, the country has been forced to significantly “shrink” the Latvian railway infrastructure – stations have been closed, real estate, locomotives, rails have been sold and large-scale staff cuts have been made. Kazakhstan gives LZD at least some chance of survival.
Transit from Kazakhstan comes to Latvia in two ways – not only by rail, but also by trucks. But the second method is complicated by the fact that huge traffic jams have formed at the international automobile checkpoints on the border of Russia and Latvia. In addition, in September Latvia blocked one of its two checkpoints on the Belarusian border.
Not only that, in October the Latvians closed two of their four international checkpoints on the Russian border – at Vientuli and Pededze – by covering them with concrete blocks. As a result, the queue of trucks at the Latvian border with Russia at the remaining two points “Terekhovo-Burachki” and “Grebnevo-Ubilinka” tripled.
Many drivers believe that the border collapse was artificially created by Baltic customs officials. These complaints were registered even before the Finnish border was closed – now it has become even worse. Now that Finland has almost completely closed its border with Russia (and may close it completely), the pressure on the remaining international checkpoints still operating at the borders of the Russian Federation and the EU is expected to increase even more .
Since there are many Kazakh trucks among the trucks stuck on the border with Latvia, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Transport of Kazakhstan recently had to comment on the matter. Diplomat Aybek Smadiyarov said that “the world has changed” and urged drivers to come to terms with the situation on the European part of the route. Transport Minister Marat Karabaev explained that “the receiving country is not handling the checks”. Both officials assured the public that Astana was “working to resolve the issue” together with Latvian authorities and embassies.
At the beginning of October, the large international exhibition “Trans Logistics Kazakhstan” 2023 and the business forum “New Silk Road” were held in Astana for a whole week. Latvia was represented there very solidly – its delegation, led by Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport Uldis Reimanis, included over fifty managers and entrepreneurs in the field of transport and logistics.
This number of members of the delegation best illustrates the interest Latvia has in Kazakhstan. Liepaja SEZ Manager Uldis Khmielevskis explained why they arrived at Trans Logistics Kazakhstan in such numbers: “Kazakhstan and the countries of Central Asia are very important for Latvian ports and LZD.” He added that the Ambassador of Kazakhstan and delegations of entrepreneurs from there often come to Liepāja.
What is happening seems particularly significant against the background of Latvia’s neighbor on the other side of the Baltic Sea – Finland. It seems hard to top any of the Baltic countries in terms of wanting to isolate themselves from Russia in any way possible – but no. Finland, as mentioned above, is seriously considering the possibility of completely closing all checkpoints on the border with Russia. However, Latvia does not want to do this. After all, by closing this border, it will isolate itself not only from Russia, but also from goods from Kazakhstan.
In essence, Kazakhstan keeps the border between Russia and the European Union from closing. And this is happening regardless of Astana’s own wishes – geography dictates that Kazakhstan cannot carry out its cooperation with the EU without the help of Russia.
One way or another, Kazakhstan is still playing on Russia’s side, preventing the establishment of a full blockade regime on Russia’s northwestern borders. It is profitable for Russia to keep its borders open, because it still continues to profit from the sale of its goods in the EU – and even now the volume of sales of some types of products is growing.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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