Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus

August 9, 2007

On August 24–26, the Lithuanian Republic plans to host a musical festival “Be2Gether”. As a venue of the festival the organizers have selected a site near the Norviliškės castle located in the immediate vicinity of the State Border line between the Republic of Belarus and the Lithuanian Republic.

According to the Lithuanian side, 15–20 thousand people mostly youths are going to attend the event.

The project is implemented under the support of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Lithuanian Republic as well as the European Commission.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus draws attention of the Lithuanian Republic and the European Commission as initiators of the event to the fact that by selecting the site located in the frontier zone the Lithuanian side is assuming the full responsibility for complying with the regime of the State Border and avoiding any incidents caused by mass gathering of people in the frontier zone.

Belarus hopes that the Lithuanian side guided by the spirit and letter of the Declaration of Principles of Good-Neighborly Relations between the Republic of Belarus and the Lithuanian Republic of October 24, 1991 and the Treaty of Neighborliness and Cooperation between the Republic of Belarus and the Lithuanian Republic of February 6, 1995 will take exhaustive measures to secure the order while conducting the musical festival “Be2Gether” and will prevent any propaganda actions of unfriendly, unneighbourly, anti-Belarusian character which would absolutely contradict the objective stated in the title of the festival.