BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

26/10/2010

Good Lithuania-Belarus relations - for the better to both Europe and Russia

Petras Vaida, BC, Vilnius,

Good bilateral relations between Lithuania and Belarus should be useful not only for Europe but also for Russia, a presidential adviser on foreign policy says. According to the president's foreign policy adviser Laurynas Jonavicius, Dalia Grybauskaite's visit to neighbouring Belarus last week suggests no political support to Alexander Lukashenko by any means in the wake of the upcoming election.

The Lithuanian president visited Belarus as next year Lithuania takes the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), writes LETA/ELTA.

"We take over the OSCE chairmanship next year, and this visit was mainly aimed at informing Belarus, its leader, about the expectations of ours, the OSCE, European countries concerning free, democratic and open elections. Elections are a very important criterion, in general, to assess the future in the relations between the European Union, all European countries and Belarus. Therefore, it is a common position of European countries, Lithuania just did what it had to do," the presidential adviser said on the Ziniu Radijas on Tuesday morning.

Jonavicius rejected statements that Grybauskaite purportedly expressed political support to Lukashenko.

"The president of Belarus does not need any support in the elections, he feels very strong and self-confident. In addition, the call to hold the transparent, democratic and open elections can be expressed just before the election. As they say, no one shakes his fists after the battle, thus, it would be illogical to go there after the elections and deliver the message post factum," the foreign policy adviser said.

Jonavicius drew attention to the good bilateral relations, which should be the main goal. "In my understanding, good relations between Lithuania and Belarus are the main objective of common interest, and when they will be good, if they are, it will be better for both Europe and Russia. It is such a simple assessment. Our goal is to have good bilateral relations, in particular, with Belarus in this case," presidential adviser Jonavicius said.

Source:

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/baltic_states_cis/?doc=33161


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