Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has urged the U.S. Special Envoy for Belarus, John Kohl, to exercise caution in discussions with Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Nausėda voiced his concerns during a meeting with Kohl in Brussels on Thursday, March 19, 2026, stating, “I proactively tried to convince him that conversations with the Belarusian dictator must be incredibly careful.”
He added, “Yes, he may be able to create a suitable backdrop to create illusions or attempts to dream that he can move closer to the West, but there are many objective reasons why he cannot move closer to the West.”
Nausėda confirmed that he did not discuss sanctions against Belarus with Kohl.
The Lithuanian president emphasized the importance of focusing on Lukashenko’s actions rather than his rhetoric when assessing the situation in Belarus.
“Actual actions show that he is not moving closer to the West – deploying ‘Oreshnik’ missiles, assisting Russia in drone attacks against Ukraine, using aggressive rhetoric, balloons and other provocations. There is no reason to believe that anything is fundamentally changing,” Nausėda explained.
While acknowledging the support for U.S. Efforts to release Belarusian political prisoners, Nausėda cautioned that Minsk may exploit the issue for its own gain.
“Seeing that the release of political prisoners can be profitably exchanged for benefits in other areas, he is actually motivated to imprison even more people in order to maintain influence for future gains. It is a vicious and very flawed cycle,” Nausėda said of Lukashenko’s considerations.
Kohl visited Lithuania on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, where he also met with Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė to discuss Minsk’s hybrid attacks against Lithuania.
During his visit to Vilnius, Kohl also met with European Parliament member Petras Gražulis and Lithuanian parliament members Ignas Vėgėlė and Rimantas Jonas Jankauskas.
Nausėda suggested that Kohl’s meetings reflect a belief within the current White House administration that it is “seeking political forces or personalities that it may consider ideologically close.”
“I believe that before meeting with such personalities, it would be necessary to uncover out exactly what they represent and what values they defend; then, perhaps, the desire to meet would diminish,” Nausėda stated.
Gražulis has been convicted of disrespecting the LGBT+ community and violating the constitution, while Vėgėlė ran for the Lithuanian presidency as an independent candidate after gaining popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic for opposing mandatory vaccination and restrictions. Jankauskas, meanwhile, submitted a bill to parliament last year proposing compensation for fines paid for violating pandemic-era restrictions.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, who also met with the U.S. Special Envoy on Wednesday, expressed optimism that the meeting would have “a very good positive impact.”
“I assess yesterday’s meeting very positively. I have indications that this meeting will have a very positive impact, but I do not want to talk about it in more detail,” Šimonytė told journalists on Thursday.
During the meeting, Šimonytė and Kohl discussed Minsk’s hybrid attacks against Lithuania. The Prime Minister also thanked the U.S. Envoy for his active efforts to secure the release of political prisoners in Belarus.
Lithuania has previously sought U.S. Assistance in addressing issues related to contraband balloons launched from Belarus and the detention of Lithuanian carriers’ trucks in Belarus.
Lithuanian businesses are concerned that Belarus may implement threats to confiscate trucks detained since October.
Kohl is scheduled to visit Belarus on Thursday, March 20, 2026.
In mid-December of last year, the U.S. Special Envoy for Belarus announced the lifting of sanctions on Belarusian potash fertilizer exports, in exchange for which Minsk released more than a hundred political prisoners. U.S. Sanctions on the Belarusian fertilizer sector came into force in 2021 – a year after the presidential elections in Belarus, in which Lukashenko was illegally declared the winner. At that time, all U.S. Individuals and legal entities were required to cease transactions with Belarusian potash fertilizer producer “Belarusjkaļij.”
In 2022, the European Union also imposed sanctions on the Belarusian fertilizer sector.
Following Kohl’s announcement in December, political observers began to speculate that Washington might strive to pressure Lithuania to allow the resumption of fertilizer transit through the port of Klaipėda. Products from potash fertilizer producer “Belarusjkaļij” were transported through Lithuania and the port of Klaipėda until February 2022, when Lithuania suspended transit in response to U.S. Sanctions and other national security concerns.
In the autumn and early December, Vilnius Airport was repeatedly forced to suspend takeoffs and landings due to cigarette smuggling balloons from Belarus, but the number of such incidents decreased significantly after Kohl’s visit to Belarus in mid-December. Following the visit, Kohl announced that the authoritarian Belarusian President Lukashenko had promised to stop launching contraband air balloons.
Lithuanian officials consider the launch of contraband balloons to be a hybrid attack by Minsk.
