Lithuania doesn’t accept demands to buy friendship – Grybauskaite on Sikorski remarks

She spoke in response to a recording of a conversation involving Poland’s former foreign minister Radosław Sikorski published on the Polish media. In the conversation, Sikorski urged to “teach Lithuanians a lesson” in connection to Polish investments in an oil refinery in Mažeikiai.

“I have always believed that bilateral cooperation, regardless of the size of countries, should be equal. We have aimed to maintain sincere and constructive relations with Poland. This is exactly what we expect from them. Lithuania finds unacceptable any instructions or demands made by any country to buy friendship,” Grybauskaitė said in a comment received by BNS from her press service.

Poland’s tvp.info news portal Monday published a fragment of a secret recording of a conversation between Poland’s former foreign minister, Sikorski, and Orlen CEO Jacek Krawiec, which showed that Poland was seriously considering selling the Mazeikiai oil refinery in Lithuania, and in later discussions of possible closure Sikorski urged Krawiec “to teach Lithuanians a lesson.”

“I want to teach Lithuanians a lesson, so that they don’t think that s***ting on Poland won’t cost anything,” Sikorski said. The ex-minister shared the quote on his Twitter feed.

The date of the conversation is not specified, however, earlier reports suggest that Sikorski’s conversations were secretly recorded during private meetings in Warsaw restaurants in 2013 and 2014.

Poland has been for years criticizing the Lithuanian government for its failure to solve problems of Orlen Lietuva and allegedly poor conditions for its operations. The dispute was settled in early June this year when the state-run company Lietuvos Geležinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways) and Orlen Lietuva signed a contract on freight tariffs after lengthy negotiations.