Baltic States – CIS, Belarus, Legislation, Lithuania, Port, Transport

"Naturally, it can happen politically, but in any case no place for logic remains. Economically looking into what type of Belarusian cargoes go via Klaipeda, it could not happen in the near future as certain technical parameters are needed, logistics chains and specialized terminals, the whole input," Latakas told BNS.

In his words, Latvia could probably swiftly take over Belarusian cargoes and that path would be the most economically attractive for Minsk.

"Those cargoes used to go via Latvia. Those fertilizers went via Ventspils and Riga, and they have certain possibilities but they would need to prepare. It could be hard to estimate how much time they would need, if they had a similar contract, and if they direct all their effort into that as this is big money, taking into account the railways and everything else," the port CEO said.

He believes diverting cargoes to the Russian port of Ust Luga in the Gulf of Finland would be difficult as it would need to up its capacity. Moreover, one would need to transport cargoes by rail further.

"What Belarusian have today (Klaipeda Port – BNS) is the economically best and most convenient way of transporting cargoes," he added.

Nevertheless, if Klaipeda, called an unofficial port of Belarus, lost third of cargoes, as Belarus exports around 15 million tons a year, that would be a serious loss for the port, Latakas said.