She stated her position after presenting credentials to Lithuania's new ambassador to Belarus, Linas Linkevičius.
"Belarus is an important neighbor for Lithuania, which we share versatile relations with, therefore, we should seek that the cooperation is equal, constructive and mutually-beneficial," Grybauskaitė said in a press release circulated by her press service.
In her words, it is vital to facilitate unimpeded communication between people of Lithuania and Belarus, consequently, Lithuania wants the facilitated border-crossing regime to take effect as soon as possible.
"Lithuania and Belarus share close economic relations, therefore, it is crucial to secure their development in line with shared European rules and principles (...). Lithuania is interested in resumption of the EU-Belorussian dialogue and seeks European standards and values in these relations," reads the press release.
Linkevičius served as Lithuania's defense minister in 1993-1996 and 2000-2004, headed Lithuania's permanent mission to NATO in 2005-2011 and has been working as ambassador-at-large since 2011.
The EU-Belorussian ties have been tense since Minsk's brutal treatment of opposition figures following the presidential election in December 2010. Since then, the EU has banned entry of some administration figures and froze bank accounts of some figures linked with the regime.
Lithuanian-Belorussian ties have recently been overcast by a few incidents.
Last Thursday, the Foreign Ministry said that information published on the official website of the Belarusian KGB,about detention of Belorussian citizens for alleged spying for Lithuania, was misleading, stressing that such "insinuations (…) did not contribute to better bilateral ties."
Meanwhile, the Belorussian media accused Lithuanian services of alleged complicity in the so-called teddy-bear campaign, although the official Minsk denied reports about discard of over 1,000 teddy-bears above the Belorussian territory from a small Swedish airplane in protest of violations of free speech.
