Belarus President Alexandr Lukashenko is the only one who is already winning, regardless of the results of today’s meeting in Minsk.
Independent Newspaper writes this, nothing that three high European officials are to arrive in the capital of Belarus, which has not happened since 2010, when EU Commissioner for Expansion Štefan Füle came to Minsk on the peak of ‘political thawing.’
“It would be unjust to count on improved cooperation with united Europe only because Belarus has been chosen for this important summit,” thinks political expert Andrey Fedorov. “However it undoubtedly offers certain opportunities.”
The EU tried to cool Minsk’s ardor, as they are attempting to increase the peacekeeping part of Belarus and their President. “Bilateral EU-Belarus relations will not be the subject of the meeting in Minsk,” stated Catherine Ashton’s official representative on Monday, when answering the question about the possibility of some bilateral meetings between EU officials and the representatives of the Belarus government of civil organizations. She reminded that Minsk’s intermediary mission had not changed the attitude of the EU towards the Belarus government.
Representatives of the Belarus opposition made an official statement on Monday regarding the August 26 meeting. Its main theses are: the territorial integrity of Ukraine has to be preserved, the conflict in Ukraine had been provoked by Russia, which should at least stop illegal weapons supplies to Ukraine to solve it. Meanwhile the Belarus opposition doesn’t think that the location for such a meeting was chosen well, claiming that this essentially legitimizes the Belarus regime.
Source: UkrInform
Translated by Mariya Shcherbinina
