The trade between Russia and Lithuania reached $4 billion in 2019, despite the recent scaling back of contacts between the countries, Russian Ambassador to Vilnius Alexander Udaltsov told Sputnik in an interview
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2020) The trade between Russia and Lithuania reached $4 billion in 2019, despite the recent scaling back of contacts between the countries, Russian Ambassador to Vilnius Alexander Udaltsov told Sputnik in an interview.
"As for trade and economic relations, despite the official course of Vilnius envisaging the scaling back of all contacts with Russia, trade is developing on its own. We are still the first trading partner of Lithuania. Trade has increased in recent years. The year before last, it increased by 40 percent. In 2019, it fell by 14 percent but stood at almost $4 billion at the end of the year," Udaltsov said.
The ambassador attributed the trade's decrease in 2019 to the lower supply of Russian mineral products to Lithuania, which accounted for 70 percent of all of Russia's exports to the country. According to Udaltsov, natural gas coming from Russia meets half of Lithuania's need for fuel.
The ambassador also stated that Lithuania's share in the total foreign trade balance of Russia was 0.6 percent.
Russian-Lithuanian relations have been increasingly strenuous, with Vilnius trying to portray Moscow as an aggressor interested in destabilizing the Baltic region. In 2019, Vilnius listed Russia as one of the key threats to Lithuania's security in the country's National Threat Assessment report. Moscow, on its part, has repeatedly warned that anti-Russia rhetoric in the Baltic states was aimed at justifying NATO's increasing presence.
