The Lithuanian Minister for Transport and Communications Eligijus Masiulis had the meeting with the Minister for Transport of Russia Igor Levitin on May 15 2009, in the course of which the cargo rail-transportation tariffs, cooperation in the road transport field, and shipping in the Curonian Lagoon and communications development matters were discussed, ELTA referrs to Klaipeda Port news service.
The ministers paid a lot of attention to the cooperation in railway area, as both countries are interested to develop and improve cargo transportation conditions in East-West direction. Kaliningrad region is of special importance as most of Russian cargo to this region pass via the territory of Lithuania.
Last year Lithuanian railway operator Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai transported 16.5 million tons of cargo to Kaliningrad region, but the record quantity is 17.6 million tons, which was registered in 2007. Recently the cargo flows to Kaliningrad region started to decrease significantly – during January-March 2009 the volumes of cargo were down by 48,7%.