Latvian President ready to meet with Lukashenka at EaP summit. Political prisoners forgotten?


Latvian President Andris Bērziņš has announced his readiness to meet with Alyaksandr Lukashenka if the Belarusian leader attends the May 21-22 Eastern Partnership summit in Riga, news agency BelaPAN reports

“Why not [meet him] if he comes here?” Mr. Bērziņš said in an interview aired by a Latvian radio station earlier this week.

He said that participants were invited to the summit by the European Union, not by Latvia. 

“We have a clear interest – we are doing our utmost to ensure that relations [with Belarus] are like [relations] with the best neighbors. This has been done on our part,” he said. 

Mr. Bērziņš welcomed Belarus’ role as the host of key talks on the Ukraine crisis. “What Belarus did regarding the Minsk agreements is a colossal step forward. This has to be taken into consideration,” he said.

The Latvian president noted that the possibility of inviting Mr. Lukashenka to the Riga summit would not even have been raised a year before. 

A month ago journalists asked Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey who would represent Belarus at the summit in Riga.

“The issue is being considered. The head of state will decide who will go to the summit,” the Belarusian Foreign Minister answered.

It is noteworthy that Aliaksandr Lukashenka never represented Belarus at the previous summits in Prague, Warsaw and Vilnius as the EU blacklisted the Belarusian president and his sons for serious violations of human rights, for the repression of civil society and the democratic opposition or for undermining democracy and the rule of law in Belarus.

The Belarusian delegation will take part in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit in Riga only ‘on equal footing’, Uladzimir Makey told TV channel ONT in early February. His statement might have been a response to the words of Lithuanian Deputy FM  Andrius Krivas who said Europe will lift the existing sanctions against Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka only after ‘major progress in the area of human rights’ is shown and political prisoners are released.

The Belarusian HRC “Viasna” states that there are six political prisoners – people who are unlawfully deprived of liberty because of their political views, and demands their immediate release – in Belarus.

www.belsat.eu/en/, following BelaPAN

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