Minsk, November 2010, the presidential election will take place in just over a month, Belarus experiences relative liberalization and as a consequence — the next thaw in relations between Minsk and Brussels. Then as many as two foreign ministers of the EU countries – Germany, Guido Westerwelle and Radoslaw Sikorski from Poland – came to the meeting with Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
After the brutal dispersal of the Square on December 19, 2010, Lukashenka did not have the guests from Poland on this scale. Until now. However, the visit of the Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski started not from a meeting with his counterpart, Uladzimir Makei and not even from that of the head of Belarus. First he visited Kurapaty, the place where next to the thousands of our ancestors lying in unmarked graves also lie the Poles.
In an interview with reporters, the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry promised to mention during the meeting with the Belarusian authorities a number of contentious issues, including the issue of human rights, the Union of Poles in Belarus and accreditation for foreign journalists. Here he meant the TV channel “Belsat”.
“We would like all the media in Belarus to work on an equal footing. If there is an opportunity to talk about this, of course, we will raise this issue. No media is harmful, they only inform the public,” said Witold Waszczykowski.
Another issue, which was on the agenda of the Polish Minister during the meeting with Belarusian authorities is the simplification of the visa regime between the countries. This he said during a visit to the Polish visa center, which opened in the “Galileo” mall the other day.
Witold Waszczykowski discussed with Belarusian counterpart Uladzimir Makei not only the visa issue, but also the economic cooperation of Minsk and Warsaw, their interaction within the international organizations and the situation in the region.
“I would like to express my gratitude to our Polish friends for their pragmatic approach to the issue of the lifting of sanctions against Belarus,” said the head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Uladzimir Makei.
The head of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs also met with representatives of the democratic community of Belarus.
Ales Yashchanka, Belsat
