EU members to send ambassadors back to Minsk
PR dla Zagranicy
John Beauchamp
25.04.2012 18:21
Polish, Lithuanian and Swedish diplomats have come back to their posts in Minsk after EU ambassadors left Belarus following a diplomatic spat over sanctions imposed on the Lukashenko regime by Brussels earlier this year.
“Other ambassadors will return over the next hours and days,” Poland’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Marcin Bosacki told journalists, Wednesday.
Czech Ambassador Jiri Karas is to go back to Minsk on Friday, he said in an interview for Radio Svoboda. The official was the first envoy to officially confirm his return to the outpost in Minsk.
The diplomats had withdrawn from Belarus at the end of February as a token of solidarity with the Polish and EU ambassadors, who were told to leave the country.
The step was taken by President Alexander Lukashenko in the wake of further sanctions placed by the EU on his regime.
Alexander Lukashenko has recently pardoned a candidate in the December 2010 presidential race, political activist Andrei Sannikov and Dzmitry Bandarenka, a move long advocated by EU officials. (aba/jb)