BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

23/04/2009

Belarus official: Lukashenko will attend EU summit

Author : DPA

Minsk - Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko will make a controversial appearance at an upcoming European Union summit, a senior government official confirmed Thursday on the state-run Bel-1 television channel. Lukashenko "fully intends" to attend the Eastern Partnership summit to be held by the EU in Prague on May 7, said Sergei Martynov, Belarus Foreign Minister.

Martynov's remarks were the first official confirmation of Lukashenko's intention to accept an EU offer to attend the summit, made last week by Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.

Lukashenko's attendance at the summit would mark a diplomatic breakthrough for Minsk, which for years has been isolated because of Belarusian government persecution of political opposition and independent media.

The EU and US have since the mid-1990s campaigned to isolate Lukashenko and the Belarusian leadership by banning their travel, and imposing trade sanctions against Belarusian businesses.

Brussels' invitation of the authoritarian Lukashenko to the summit has raised hackles with some critical of the EU's current foreign policy of arms-length association with its eastern neighbours.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a longtime EU critic and sometimes a political opponent of Schwarzenberg, in a Friday statement said he would neither "shake hands with Mr Lukashenko nor accept him at Prague Castle."

The EU hopes to bring Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine closer through increased aid and partnership deals in return for democratic and pro-market reforms. The plan,however, does not offer full EU membership to the six countries.

The programme is seen as a bid to mitigate Russia's influence in its neighbourhood. Originally proposed by Sweden and Poland as an Eastern counterweight to the France-pushed initiative to boost ties in the Mediterranean, the Eastern Partnership plan gained further significance after the Russian invasion of Georgia in August 2008.

The Czech Republic chairs chairs the EU until June 30.

Source:

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/265584,belarus-official-lukashenko-will-attend-eu-summit.html

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