Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko (right) and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė shake hands in front of the Presidential Palace in Vilnius this morning. Today's meeting was called “constructive and meaningful” by Lithuanian government officials.

VILNIUS — The Belarusian and Lithuanian presidents met today to discuss increasing ties between the two countries. The meeting was reported to be “constructive and meaningful,” by Lithuanian government officials.

“The president said it’s a good beginning to the relationship and it will evolve,” Linas Balsys, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė’s press spokesman told journalists at the presidential palace today.

The visit to Vilnius, which also includes a showing at Lithuanian-Belarussian International Economic Forum, was the first to the Lithuania for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in 11 years.

“This will be a good start for Lithuania and Belarus. The arrival to Vilnius not only means a visit to Lithuania, but also the European Union. Eastern neighborhood issues were discussed and Belarus has been invited to be involved, but they need to fulfill requirements before that could happen,” Balsys said.

Lukashenko said he enjoyed the meeting, which ran over time more than an hour, with the new Lithuanian President.

“Did we really talk for so long? It seemed to me that it was brief. We tried to make it faster, in order not to make you afraid, not to start suspecting something wrong. We understood each other on everything. I am very satisfied,” Lukashenko said to the media afterwards.

The secretive meeting involved talks about economic development between the two countries, Grybauskaitė’s economic advisor Nerijus Udrėnas told Baltic Reports, but the details will not be made public.

“This was a very closed meeting and I cannot say anything specific. These [economic] indications of this were discussed for the sectors of transport, energy, trade in different materials and fertilizer,” Udrėnas said. The energy sector and the establishment of a joint Lithuanian-Belarusian logistics center and possibilities making better use of Klaipėda port were also topics of discussion.

Human rights were addressed in the meeting. Grybauskaitė told Lukashenko that she supported the EU’s trade sanction policy against Belarus for the dictatorship’s human rights abuses. The EU will decide in November whether or not to extend the “smart sanctions” policy, which limits the travel of Belarusian officials. The travel ban has only been loosely enforced, though, as evidenced by today’s meeting.

A small group of protesters gathered outside the Presidential Palace during Lukashenko’s visit, holding signs decrying the Belarusian president’s authoritarian policies.

The issue of visas for border residents was also discussed. Since Lithuania joined the EU in 2004, families and friends previously able to visit each other regularly found that visas became harder to get.

“Grybauskaitė discussed culture cooperation and also the issue of cross border contacts — so people could visit 50 kilometers of the border could travel to see each other. This is good for bilateral relations,” Balsys said.

Grybauskaitė thanked Lukashenko for efforts to preserve the Lithuanian heritage in Belarus including ethnic minorities in Belarus and history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, much of which is now located in Belarus.