On Wednesday Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey met with Andrius Pulokas, the Ambassador of Lithuania to Belarus, on the occasion of presenting by the Ambassador of the copies of his Credentials.
“The Head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry expressed hope that an emotional attitude of the Lithuanian side, recently observed in the discussions of the project of construction of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, will settle,” the press service of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry reports.
During the meeting, the sides discussed the whole range of issues of the agenda of the Belarusian-Lithuanian relations, including problematic topics.
The Belarusian NPP in Astravets is being constructed by Russia’s nuclear corporation Rosatom.
The NPP first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2018, the second one – in 2020. The construction of two nuclear reactors is provided in the agreement reached by Belarus and Russia, the reactors being supplied by Atomstroyexport, Russia. The project faced opposition at home and abroad on both safety and political grounds.
Lithuania is the main critic of the idea of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, which is only 20 km from the border and 50 km from Vilnius. Minsk rejects Lithuania’s claims, arguing that nuclear power plants will have high safety standards. Vilnius asked Brussels for involvement of the European Union in the matter.
On 8 April 2016, there was a collapse of the structural frame of the would-be nuclear service building at Astravets NPP, of which Belsat.eu was informed in early May.
At first, the authorities denied our report saying that there had not been any incidents at the construction site. State-run mass media remained silent as well. After the publication Lithuania summoned Belarus’ ambassador and handed him a diplomatic note demanding explanation over the incident.
As reported earlier, during installation the enclosure of the future reactor fell from the height of 2 – 4 meters at the construction site of the Belarusian NPP in Astravets.
