Image by Homoatrox
Beijing is slowly solidifying control over the Baltic energy market and helping to push electricity from the controversial Astravyets nuclear power plant in Belarus into Lithuania, against the government’s will, which sees the facility as a security threat.
The LRT investigation division reports that NCPE is implementing the so-called Belarusian nuclear energy transmission and interconnection project, which includes 23 projects in total, reported The Baltic Times.
Belarus has also received a loan from the Export–Import Bank of China for this Astravyets network project, and the Chinese banks has loaned Belarus 5 billion US dollars in total.
In 2013, NCPE acquired the Kaunas-based Energetikos Tinklu Institutas (Power Network Institute), one of the biggest designers of electricity facilities in Lithuania. The Chinese own the majority stake and have only Chinese citizens on its board.
The Trump administration has made known to the European Union its concerns over China’s debt-trap practices and it’s agenda of gaining control of critical infrastructure in NATO countries.
