BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

17/04/2009

Belarusian President Invited To EU Summit

(RTTNews) - The European Union on Friday invited Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to an EU summit aimed at developing the European bloc's energy and trade links with six former Soviet states.

Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told reporters in the Belarusian capital Minsk that he had personally invited Lukashenko to attend the "Eastern Partnership" summit in Prague on 7 May.

"It's up to the president . . . in which way Belarus will be represented at the conference," Schwarzenberg said.

"The respected minister gave an invitation to the president to participate in the summit. In the coming days we will work to ensure this summit is a success," Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov said at the joint news conference.

The Prague summit is intended to develop EU's relationship with six former Soviet countries, including Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The EU invitation to Belarus reflects the recent warming of EU-Belarus ties, which were soured earlier over abuses of democratic and human rights in the former Soviet bloc nation.

The ties between the two sides improved recently after Belarus bowed to international pressure and several political prisoners in 2008 August.

Soon afterwards, EU suspended the travel ban it had imposed on Lukashenko and other top Belarusian officials, saying that the move was an attempt to encourage democratic reform in the former Soviet republic.

by RTT Staff Writer

Source:

http://www.rttnews.com/ArticleView.aspx?Id=915856&SMap=1

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