VILNIUS, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) --The Lithuanian government decided on Wednesday to reopen the border with Belarus earlier than planned, the Baltic News Service(BNS) reported.

The Salcininkai-Benyakoni and Medininkai-Kamenny Log border checkpoints have been temporarily closed for more than two weeks.

Their operations will resume on Thursday.

Interior Minister Vladislavas Kondratovicius said at a cabinet meeting that, following the National Security Commission's decisions, the circumstances had changed and the border restrictions imposed on Oct. 29 were no longer necessary to ensure domestic security.

"It is therefore appropriate to lift the restrictions on crossing the border set out in the government resolution," he said.

The Cabinet closed the border with Belarus, with certain exceptions, on Oct. 30 for one month in response to a civil aviation threat posed by smugglers' balloons.

The Salcininkai-Benyakoni checkpoint was fully closed, while traffic through the Medininkai-Kamenny Log checkpoint was restricted.

After Poland reopened two of its Belarus border checkpoints on Monday, Lithuanian and Belarusian border officials held technical talks on Tuesday on returning stranded Lithuanian trucks, as well as on smuggling and migrant issues, according to BNS. Enditem