A key section of the Via Baltica highway, linking Poland to the three Baltic states, officially opened on Monday amid rising tensions with Russia, according to EuroNews. Passing through the strategic Suwałki Gap, the 970-km route is seen as vital for NATO troop mobility and regional defense. Leaders from Poland and Lithuania hailed it as both a military and economic lifeline. The project, part of Europe’s E67 corridor, took over a decade and €2.6 billion to complete. A companion railway, Rail Baltica, is under construction but faces major delays and rising costs, now estimated at €24 billion. They write:

A major road connecting the three Baltic states to Poland opened on Monday at a time of rising tensions between Europe and Russia.

The road, known as Via Baltica, will pass through a narrow strip of land between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad called the Suwalki Gap which has often been described as a potential target if Russia were to attack NATO.

At an inauguration ceremony on the border between their countries on Monday, Polish President Karol Nawrocki and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said the road was the region’s most important corridor and highlighted its role in the region’s defence.

NATO troops could potentially move faster in aid of the Baltics by using Via Baltica. […]

The 970 kilometre-long Via Baltica route starts in Poland’s capital Warsaw and passes through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, where it finishes in Tallinn. […]

Also under construction is a companion railway project, known as Rail Baltica, the first sections of which are due to be operational by 2030.

Construction of the new 870-kilometre railway line, running from Tallinn to the Polish border began in 2019, but has been beset by delays and disputes between the Baltic governments over the routing of the line.

There have also been problems from the European Commission which considers the price tag, with costs quadrupling from the original €6 billion to €24 billion, to be too high.

Read more here.