BNS: Vilnius, Riga to agree on Swedish power link this week - Lithuanian formin
Updated 2009-02-10
VILNIUS, Feb 09, BNS - Discussions on whether a power cable to Sweden should be built from Lithuania or from Latvia should come to a conclusion in the near future. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas told BNS on Monday that he expects that Vilnius and Riga will manage to reach an agreement on the power link project this week.Romas Svedas, the director of the Economic Security Policy Department at the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, left for Riga on Monday discuss a common position with Latvian officials. Svedas has been tipped as a candidate to become a vice-minister of the Energy Ministry, a new ministry that is being established in Lithuania.
Usackas, currently on a working visit to France, has met with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Bruno Le Maire, as well as other officials.
The Lithuanian minister said that he "has heard France's approval of the proposal to co-finance the electricity link between the Baltic countries and Sweden."
Lithuania's leaders have said on more than one occasion that the country is financially capable of building a cable to Sweden and that is better prepared for the project than Latvia.
