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Rasa Jakilaitienė, spokesperson for Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius, confirmed that Lithuania was forced to reduce the number of diplomats in neighboring Belarus Delfi.
“The Belarusian side did not take our compromise proposals into account and ultimately continued to demand a reduction in the number of Lithuanian diplomats, and if we disagreed, it intended to declare diplomats working in Belarus undesirable, which would severely limit future job opportunities for diplomats. Taking into account the final requirements and withdrawing 6 more diplomats from Minsk and Grodno, our aim is to stop this process of restricting diplomatic contacts, “said R. Jakilaitienė.
Such a requirement from Belarus means that the Lukashenko regime could declare Lithuanians disliked persona non grata by submitting a list of surnames formulated by the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the KGB.
And restricting job opportunities for diplomats in the future could mean that these Lithuanians would be undesirable in the few countries that are still friends with the Lukashenko regime.
For example, in Russia, where the recent search for Sviatlan Cichanouskaya was announced, the Minsk and Kremlin regimes have been particularly “cooperating” after the August 9 elections, when it was Russia that Lukashenko helped keep him in power. However, even the voluntary withdrawal of diplomats was forced to be accepted by Lithuania and the Lukashenko regime considers it a hostile step.
“As our partners in the EU, we are convinced that, especially at a time when the Belarusian regime is restricting any contact with the West, diplomatic representation in Belarus is becoming even more important.
We emphasize once again that the full responsibility for the state of diplomatic relations between the states rests with the current leadership of Belarus. Together with our partners in the EU, today in the Foreign Affairs Council we made a decision in principle to begin the process of expanding the list of Belarusian sanctioned persons by several dozen high-ranking officials, including A. Lukashenko, “added R. Jakilaitienė.
EU pressure and Minsk’s response
And indeed, those decisions were made after the EU reconsidered the sanctions against the Belarusian regime. Delfi has already announced that, according to AFP sources, the European Union’s foreign ministers agreed on Monday to impose sanctions on Belarusian leader Lukashenko, increasing pressure on his regime’s continued crackdown on protesters.
Two sources indicated that Lukashenko’s name would be added to a list of 40 officials under his regime. The EU holds them responsible for falsifying the results of the presidential elections on August 9, which brought him back to power, and for brutally suppressing the massive protests that have rocked the country since the elections.
Travel insurance was advertised against them and these people’s assets were frozen. In late September, the Baltic states adopted a list of their sanctions against Belarus, which includes 100 people. At that time, Lukashenko himself had already made it clear that any of the punishments of his regime would suffer in the first place from the neighbors of Belarus, Poland and Lithuania, who now must be taught the dangers of a confrontation with Belarus.
Therefore, Lithuania and Poland were initially ordered to reduce their diplomatic staff and withdraw their envoys. Lithuania and Poland initially called their ambassadors for “consultations”, but this was not enough and the requirements were tightened: last week, Lithuania confirmed the withdrawal of five more of its diplomats from its embassy in Belarus, and expressed its hope of that this was enough.
“It is important to us that the work of our embassy in Minsk and the consulate in Grodno is interrupted as little as possible. This is necessary not only in the exercise of consular functions, the issuance of visas to Belarusian citizens, the link with the diaspora, but also in communication with Belarusian civil society.
Belarus has made categorical demands to drastically reduce the number of accredited Lithuanian diplomats: send 11. To reduce tensions, we decided together with Poland to invite our ambassadors to hold consultations in capitals and thus preserve the possibility of new diplomatic relations.
After assessing various circumstances and risks, we decided to withdraw five more Lithuanian diplomats in the hope that this step would be sufficient to maintain the opportunities for dialogue. At the same time, we emphasize to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry that appropriate retaliatory measures will be applied if Belarus undertakes further escalation, ”said R. Jakilaitienė.
The spokeswoman reiterated the minister’s earlier statement that “the de facto hostile action of the Belarusian government to reduce diplomatic contacts only contributes to Minsk’s self-isolation.”
Shouted the ambassador for consultation
According to BNS, Lithuania is inviting consultations with its Minsk ambassador Andrius Pulokas, the Foreign Ministry (MFA) said.
“Our aim is to preserve diplomatic contacts as much as possible. We have also sent that message to the Belarusian side, with whom we have so far agreed that a temporary invitation to ambassadors for consultations would serve to reduce tensions and help maintain the Diplomatic representation at the ambassadorial level. Together with the Poles, we have already decided to invite the Minsk ambassadors for consultations, “Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius said in a press release on Monday.
According to the minister, no agreement has been reached on not reducing staff, at least so far, but if Belarus continues to insist, appropriate measures will be taken, “mirror”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to coordinate all its actions with Poland and other member states of the European Union (EU).
According to the Foreign Ministry, intensive consultations are taking place on the demand of the Minsk regime that Lithuania and Poland reduce the number of their staff in the embassies in Belarus.
Mr. Linkevičius spoke by phone with the High Representative of the EU, Josep Borrell, the Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau and the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. In solidarity with Lithuania and Poland, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and other countries remembered their ambassadors in Belarus. According to the portal tut.by, the remaining Italian and Austrian EU ambassadors were in Minsk over the weekend.
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