Belarus’s exports to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are at or close to record levels, cementing their trading relationships even as the three Baltic states take an aggressive stance on sanctions against the regime of leader Alexander Lukashenko.
In the first 10 months of last year, Estonia’s imports from Belarus were more than double 2020’s total at €522m and more than a fifth higher than the previous peak in 2018. Lithuania’s imports have increased 50 per cent compared with 2020, hitting €1bn — a third higher than the previous 2015 high. Latvia’s are up two-thirds from 2020 to €407m, just 2 per cent below their 2011 peak.
The sharp increases lay bare the tensions that the Baltic states face between economic opportunities and their geopolitical rhetoric, according to experts.
“The Baltic states are in the process of discovering that translating strong and principled foreign policy positions into an effective sanction regime is not such a simple matter, even in the most clear-cut cases,” said Tomas Jermalavicius, head of studies at Estonia’s International Centre for Defence and Security. “There are domestic economic players — even state-owned corporate entities — that will use every possibility to find ways around them for as long as feasible.”
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Belarus’s exports to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are at or close to record levels, cementing their trading relationships even as the three Baltic states take an aggressive stance on sanctions against the regime of leader Alexander Lukashenko.
In the first 10 months of last year, Estonia’s imports from Belarus were more than double 2020’s total at €522m and more than a fifth higher than the previous peak in 2018. Lithuania’s imports have increased 50 per cent compared with 2020, hitting €1bn — a third higher than the previous 2015 high. Latvia’s are up two-thirds from 2020 to €407m, just 2 per cent below their 2011 peak.
The sharp increases lay bare the tensions that the Baltic states face between economic opportunities and their geopolitical rhetoric, according to experts.
“The Baltic states are in the process of discovering that translating strong and principled foreign policy positions into an effective sanction regime is not such a simple matter, even in the most clear-cut cases,” said Tomas Jermalavicius, head of studies at Estonia’s International Centre for Defence and Security. “There are domestic economic players — even state-owned corporate entities — that will use every possibility to find ways around them for as long as feasible.”