Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey will head the Belarusian delegation at the Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels on 24 November.
Minsk gratefully accepted the invitation to attend the summit at the highest level, which reflects the progress in Belarus-EU relations, Deputy Head of the ministry’s information department Andrey Shuplyak said. However, the Belarusian delegation will be led by Uladzimir Makey. The reason for such a decision has not been given.
“Minsk is interested in removing all the EU restrictions in the relations with Belarus. The agenda of the Belarusian-European cooperation will include negotiations on the conclusion of a framework agreement on partnership and cooperation. Belarus is interested in the EU’s Eastern Partnership, which should become evidently beneficial for the citizens of Belarus and the EU, simplify doing business conditions, promote contacts between people and communication in various areas, and increase the level of objective knowledge about each other,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes Shuplyak.
In October, the European Union expressed readiness to welcome Belarus president Alyaksandr Lukashenka at the summit which is scheduled for November, 24. It is the first time he has received a personal invitation to the Brussels. For years, the Belarusian leader had been denied entry to EU member coutries.
According to French Ambassador to Belarus Didier Canesse, a program of cooperation between the EU and Belarus will be adopted at the event.
“Now I cannot go into details, but I can assure you that there will be new elements,” Canesse told TV channel Belarus-1.
lier, former political prisoners Mikalai Statkevich and Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu issued an appeal to EU leaders, in which they called Inviting Alyaksandr Lukashenka to the EaP summit in Brussels not just a step in the current EU-Belarus dialogue, but the legitimization of Lukashenka, the legalization of his policy and regime.
