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

"We are not going to adapt any infrastructure to that nuclear power plant and we are not going to purchase electricity from that facility," Butkevicius told the parliament when asked by Andrius Kubilius, the Seimas opposition leader, if Lithuania was ready to buy electricity from Astravyets.

"We have had no contacts with Belarus on this issue," he added.

Lithuania and Belarus are part of the so-called BRELL energy ring, which also covers Russia, Latvia and Estonia.

The three Baltic countries plan to withdraw from BRELL and synchronize their energy system with the continental European grid, but the process will begin only after they decide on the technical parameters together with Poland and the European Commission.

The Lithuanian media have recently reported that a Russian-made reactor is to be delivered to the site in Astravyets at the end of this year with plans to launch the first unit in 2018. A second reactor is to be put into operation in 2019.

Lithuanian experts are concerned about the safety of what is said to be the cheapest nuclear power plant in the world.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius met with his Belarusian counterpart in Minsk on Thursday and invited experts from the neighboring country to come to Lithuania to discuss international organizations' concerns regarding the Astravyets project.