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Polish and EU ambassadors to be first to return to Belarus

The Polish and EU ambassadors to Belarus are to return to Minsk early next week, while remaining EU envoys will “trickle” back later, the Brussels-based online newspaper EUobserver reported on Friday with reference to a “senior EU source.”

The EU envoys left Belarus in February in an act of solidarity with Maira Mora, head of the European Union`s Delegation to Belarus, and the Polish ambassador to Belarus, Leszek Szerepka, who were told by the Belarusian authorities “to leave for their capitals to inform their chiefs of the Belarusian side’s firm stance that pressure and sanctions are unacceptable.”

Belarus did not kick out the EU ambassadors, but now it will treat the issue of their return on a case-by-case basis, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said in early April, BelaPAN said.

“They wanted to leave and they did so, but now we’ll consider how they should return to Belarus, but we also shouldn’t say that we won’t let them back in,” he said.

According to the Belarusian leader, the fact that European states sent their ambassadors to Minsk indicated that they recognized and respected Belarus. Since they withdrew their ambassadors, “I and the foreign minister have agreed that we’ll consider each country and each ambassador individually with regard to their return to Belarus,” he said. “But this in no way means that we want to obstruct the return of the ambassadors. We’ll implement our policy regarding the return of the European ambassadors to Belarus in a business-like manner.”

On April 18, Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said that the EU ambassadors should return to Belarus in "a matter of days."

Speaking to a group of Polish reporters in Brussels, the minister said that the EU needed the ambassadors to do their work in Minsk, and that the diplomats must not be involved in political disputes between the 27-nation bloc and Belarus.

According to Mr. Lajcak, although the ambassadors of EU member states were withdrawn from Minsk, the countries did not demand a reciprocal step from the Belarusian authorities. That was meant to demonstrate the European Union's reluctance to escalate the diplomatic row, he said.

Mr. Lajcak suggested that the less attention the media and politicians devoted to the ambassadors' return, the easier it would be for the EU to achieve its goals in Belarus.

Speaking on April 17, Uladzimir Makey, head of the Presidential Administration, said that the ambassadors would be allowed to return to Belarus after the EU displayed its readiness to lift its sanctions on the country's individuals and economic entities.

"The return of the ambassadors to Belarus will be possible when the European Union comes to realize the need for a conversation with Belarus on the abolition of the sanctions, and when the ambassadors themselves, if they do intend to come back, are ready to talk not in a language of blackmail and threats but in a language of dialogue as required by appropriate conventions on diplomatic relations," he said.

Mr. Makey pointed out that "it's not us who ask but it's the European Union that asks us to allow the ambassadors to return to Belarus. “It does not just ask but demands that and even threatens [us] with new sanctions," he said.