Belarus welcomes Lithuania’s decision to tighten border controls

         The State Border Committee of Belarus supports the decision of Lithuania to tighten controls on the state border due to increased smuggling activity, BelTA learned from spokesman for the Belarusian border agency Alexander Tishchenko.
      "This is a normal practice to ensure the security of the state in every country. Similar actions have been conducted by Belarus. Belarus takes every effort to prevent smuggling and other offences on the state border,” said Alexander Tishchenko.
         The Belarusian-Lithuanian border is the most intense in terms of traffic. Checkpoints are stretched to the limit. This problem will be solved by means of upgrading the crossing points and the opening of new ones.
Earlier the Lithuanian media reported that in order to combat smuggling, the state border protection service took a decision to tighten controls on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border. Officials say that border smuggling has intensified since the control was tightened on the border with Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast a few years ago.