Does Solana offers friendship to last dictator in Europe?

• 25.09.2008, 11:23

On September 24, Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Javier Solana, the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, had a telephone conversation.

“A number of issues on inner political situation in Belarus and cooperation with the European Union were discussed during the conversation. It was emphasised that a new leaf in the relations between Belarus and the EU may be turned over,” the press service of Lukashenka says.

A. Lukashenka and J. Solana “have agreed on continuing of the started dialog after the High Representative returns from New York, where he is taking part in the session of the UN General Assembly”.

In early September, after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Avignon (France) where a possibility of lifting sanctions on Belarus was discussed, J. Solana said to journalists after political prisoners had been released in Belarus, he had had a telephone conversation with foreign minister of Belarus Syarhei Martynau.

In the middle of August, the EU High Representative welcomed the release of Alyaksandr Kazulin and expressed a hope it would promote “mutually-beneficial” dialog between the EU and Belarus. According to hi, release of A. Kazulin is an important step, sustaining positive developing of the situation in the county in the beginning of the year, when five political prisoners were released. J. Solana expressed a hope that “the parliamentary election in Belarus will give a positive impulse to rapprochement of the EU and Belarus”.

On 23 September, receiving credentials from a number of ambassadors of the EU countries, A. Lukashenka said “we will not crawl on all fours asking for entry to the common European home”. “Our dictatorship does not impede anyone’s life and development,” he noted.