28 February 2007
Minsk expects dispute on Kaliningrad shipments to be resolved soon

Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorsky said that Minsk expected a Belarusian-Russian dispute over carriage of goods traveling from the Kaliningrad exclave to mainland Russia to be settled soon.

Resolving the dispute is a technical matter, official information sources quoted the premier as saying on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, the Belarusian State Customs Committee tightened control over the movement of such goods, saying that some shipments officially in transit via Belarus never arrived at the place of destination.

In response, the Russian transport ministry decided to bar Belarusian trucking companies from carrying shipments to Russia from a third country and vice versa. The Belarusian customs agency replied that the Russian ministry had failed to "take into account external circumstances."

Mr. Sidorski said that the matter should be settled by "specific officials in charge of this work," by those in Russia above all, rather than by the prime ministers.

He accused Russia of violating bilateral agreements and said that Belarus was doing everything possible to establish a valid customs union with Russia.

Mr. Sidorski said that talks about transit shipments had recently been held in Smolensk. He said that he had been told that the matter would be settled in "a day or two."

According to him, the Belarusian delegation to the talks had suggested setting up a permanent working group that would be in charge of transport issues. The Russian delegation has not yet replied.