VILNIUS, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The presidents of Lithuania and Latvia discussed bilateral cooperation, efforts to ratify their maritime border treaty and disagreements over energy issues on Thursday during a working visit here by Latvian President Egils Levits.
According to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, after a 20-year break, talks on the maritime border are progressing and key agreements have been reached.
"One of them is that we have to agree on resources under the sea by the border between our countries," the Lithuanian president said at a press conference after his meeting with Levits.
Nauseda said he hoped that the Latvian parliament would ratify the maritime border treaty with Lithuania.
Levits told journalists that "there is a political will in Latvia" to ratify the treaty.
According to the Lithuanian national broadcaster LRT, Lithuania and Latvia signed an agreement on demarcating the maritime border back in 1999, but only the Lithuanian parliament ratified it.
According to Lithuanian media reports, potential oil reserves under the Baltic Sea by the border between Lithuania and Latvia is the reason behind the delayed ratification process.
The presidents also discussed energy issues, mainly disagreements between the two countries on purchasing electricity from the newly built Astravets Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Belarus near the Lithuanian border.
Lithuania wants its neighbors to refrain from purchasing electricity from the Astravets NPP due to its disagreements with Belarus over the safety of the plant built around 50 kilometers from the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.
Nauseda said he hoped that the synchronization of the Baltic states' power grids would solve their need for electricity rather than purchase it from third countries, according to local media.
