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EU
and NATO members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which share a
border with Belarus, have been increasingly concerned about
border security since hundreds of Russian battle-hardened Wagner
mercenaries arrived in Belarus at the invitation of President
Alexander Lukashenko.
The countries have also seen an increase in the number of mainly
Middle Eastern and African migrants trying to cross the border
in recent months and accuse Belarus of facilitating them, a
claim Minsk rejects.
"We demand from the authorities in Minsk that the Wagner Group
immediately leave the territory of Belarus and that illegal
migrants immediately leave the border area and are sent back to
their home countries," Mariusz Kaminski told a joint press
conference with his Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian
counterparts.
"If there is a critical incident, regardless of whether it is at
the Polish or Lithuanian border, we will retaliate immediately.
All border crossings that have been opened so far will be
closed," he said.
The Belarusian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to
an emailed request for comment.
With Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin believed killed in a plane
crash last week, the fate of the web of military and commercial
operations he and Wagner created for Russia across Europe, the
Middle East and Africa hangs in the balance.
Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite told media that
there were two criteria that could lead to a border closure.
"First of all, an armed incident at the border of one of the
countries. The incident would need to pose serious threat to
national security," she said "The other criterion is a mass
breakthrough of migrants through the border of one of the
states."
Bilotaite said Lithuania's interior ministry will propose to the
government closing two out of the country's four remaining
border crossing points with Belarus, a move she said would curb
contraband and would concentrate more officers at the remaining
border crossings.
Poland has closed all but one border crossing point with Belarus
this year following the imprisonment of a journalist of Polish
origin and expulsions of Polish diplomats.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz, Marek Strzelecki
in Warsaw, Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Conor Humphries
and Nick Macfie)
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