Belaruskali failed to protect its shipments through Lithuania

The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania dismissed the complaint of Belaruskali against the decision of the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court to ban the transit of potassium chloride.

“The reasons for the judgment were not disclosed, since the case was initially considered in a closed format,” Neringa Lukoševičienė, the supreme court’s spokeswoman.

In January 2022, due to US sanctions against Belaruskali, the Lithuanian government decided to cancel the agreement on the transit of potassium chloride by rail to the port of Klaipeda for their further transportation by sea. It was said the transition allegedly contradicted the instructions of national security. The agreement was signed in 2018 until 2023 and provided for the rail transit through Lithuania and the loading of 11 million tons of potassium chloride per year in the port of Klaipeda.

Belaruskali tried to challenge this decision. However, as the Lithuanian courts ruled, legal regulation within the European Union provides that national security issues are within the exclusive competence of national authorities, so the country’s government had the legal right to break the contracts with Belaruskali from this point of view.

Source: TASS