Baltic States – CIS, Belarus, Lithuania, Nuclear power plant

Lithuania must be must be prepared for potential threats, and although there are preparedness plans in place, they must be implemented in practice, President Gitanas Nauseda's chief national security advisor, told reporters after the meeting. 

"Lithuania takes a consistent position that the Astravyets nuclear power plant poses a threat today and that Lithuania has to inform the international community about possible safety violations and seek to ensure safety and security in the region and in Lithuania," Darius Kuliesius said. 

Lithuania considers the Astravyets plant as a threat to its national security because it has been built in violation of international environmental and nuclear safety requirements and international conventions, and the requirements of stress test recommendations have not been implemented, according to the advisor. 

The State Defense Council also discussed ways to prevent electricity from unsafe facilities in third countries from entering the Baltic market, he said. 

It was reported on Thursday that Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom is planning to carry out the reactor start-up at the Astravyets plant in early August. 

"Among the main news at foreign construction projects, I'll note Belarus, where we're working hard on obtaining permission to carry out the reactor start-up. We expect that it will take place in the first days of August," the Interfax news agency cited Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev as saying in an address posted on the company's website.

The facility will have two Russian-made VVER reactors with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts each. It is located in the region of Grodno, about 50 kilometers from Vilnius and less than 30 kilometers from the Lithuanian border.

Vilnius is the biggest critic of the Astravyets plant and is determined to boycott its electricity. Minsk denies that the facility fails to meet international safety standards.