Today, Minister of National Defence took part in a virtual Northern Group Defence Ministers’ meeting. He likened to his Finnish and Norwegian counterparts the current situation to 2015-2016 when Russia directed refugees from Central Asia to these countries by the “Arctic road” under its authority.
“Dozens of illegal immigrants are currently pouring into Lithuania from Belarus. They claim they are coming from such counties as Iraq, Iran, Syria. Belarus is using hybrid means to give this asymmetrical response to the European Union sanctions. We saw a similar scenario in Finland and Norway in in 2015-2016 when Russia attempted to destabilize the EU. Belarus is repeating it. The method and principles are the same,” said Minister A. Anušauskas.
Wednesday, Ministers of Defence of the Northern Group countries discussed regional security, force mobility, 5G, and climate change. Ministers looked into the possibility for their countries to cooperate ahead and after Exercise Zapad 21 of the Russian Federation and agreed to review the lessons learned in the next meeting in November.
