BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
30/06/2009
Belarus President Says Time Right To Restore Full Ties With US
MINSK, Belarus (AFP)--Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko Tuesday said it was time for Belarus and the U.S. to restore full diplomatic ties, so long as U.S. sanctions were abolished.
Lukashenko, whose regime was once dubbed "Europe's last dictatorship" by the U.S., made his comments at a rare meeting with a visiting U.S. congressional delegation.
"We are ready to return to talks about a full restoration of a mutual diplomatic presence on the condition of the legal cancellation of sanctions against our country," Lukashenko said.
"Belarus is very interested in a constructive exchange of views with the United States on all questions which have been frozen for the last 10 years.
"We need to leave the old system of stereotypes and look again at our relations," he said.
The group of U.S. lawmakers, the highest-ranking U.S. congressional delegation to visit the former Soviet republic in more than a decade, includes Senator Benjamin Cardin and Representative Alcee Hastings, both of them from President Barack Obama's Democratic Party.
Also in the group is the number two Democrat in the Senate, Richard Durbin.
The U.S. State Department has been fiercely critical of what it referred to in a February report as the "very poor" human rights situation in Belarus.
However, Lukashenko in recent months has sought to develop ties with the European Union and has launched numerous verbal attacks against Russia, after years of being a staunch ally of Moscow.
Relations between Belarus and the U.S. hit a low in 2008 when the U.S. ambassador left the country and several other U.S. diplomats were forced out following a row over U.S. economic sanctions on state oil and chemicals firm Belneftekhim.
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