Press Secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Belarus R.Varankov answers the question from BelTA about Latvia's plans to build a new NPP
02 April 2025
How can the Foreign Ministry of Belarus comment on Latvia's plans to build a nuclear power plant, including, as stated, in cooperation with Estonia or Lithuania?
I believe that this is yet another example of, to put it mildly, inconsistent and short-sighted policy of our Baltic neighbours. We remember very well how recently, in 2009, the second and last unit of the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania was shut down, following a decision taken to please the EU and under its pressure. By the way, the estimated cost of shutting down the plant will exceed 3 billion euros.
It seems that only yesterday the entire Europe was ready to decommission nuclear power plants and not to build new reactors. They expected to live on wind power and cheap American shale gas. But the reality turned out to be harsher. Wind energy is not enough to meet basic needs, and the Americans have explicitly offered Europe to conclude an exploitive trade agreement for shale gas. And gas from across the ocean has not been cheap at all, given that it is transported in liquefied form across the ocean and regasified.
Look what hybrid war Vilnius has launched against Belarus! It tracks every fallen brick at a construction site, every scheduled shutdown at the Belarusian nuclear power plant in Ostrovets. From the very beginning they urged the international community to force Belarus to abandon its plans to build the NPP. They did not give us life in international organisations, blocked us in all directions. In the next 4 years the Lithuanian government intends to ensure that the issue of the BelNPP remains on the political agenda of the European Union. They have given our plant the status of a permanent threat. They have frightened their population, constantly distributing iodine and inventing evacuation plans.
And against this background, as we can see, the same Baltic States are actively talking about nuclear power being economically feasible and environmentally safe.
But we offered them our services in energy supply, we did not disconnect them from BRELL, we offered to jointly build a nuclear power plant in Belarus, operate it and use cheap electricity. But Baltic politicians considered this as a threat to their countries.
And now they will convince their taxpayers that it is cheaper to build and maintain low-power stations at home for billions of euros and have problems with the consumption of the entire volume of electricity produced. Its cost will not be low even if it is distributed to the Baltic republics, because there are no large consumers there like steelworks, foundries or cement plants. In any case, these costs will again fall on the shoulders of ordinary citizens, the poor through tariffs and taxes.
In any case, we expect that the Latvian side will strictly comply with international legal requirements, including the Espoo Convention, which provides for public discussions of potentially dangerous projects within the country and in its neighbouring countries.
