Andrei Yahorau: Europe tries to test intentions of the Belarusan government

The visit of Tomislav Nikolic to Minsk can, among others, perform diplomatic function in terms of intermediation between the EU and Belarus.

This opinion in the talk with the EuroBelarus Information Service shared Andrei Yahorau, political scientist, the director of the Centre for European transformation.

“The fact that Serbia is not a member of the European Union means that nominally, the President of this country is not limited in his contacts with the high-ranking Belarusan officials”, - he recalled.

Andrei Yahorau noted that the latest initiatives of the Foreign Ministry of Belarus aimed at activation of contacts with the EU require certain type of diplomatic work.

And Tomislav Nikolic’s visit can perform among others a diplomatic function, designed to check how serious Belarusan government is; even despite the fact that Serbia supported EU sanctions against high-ranking officials of Belarus.

“Europe tries to test Belarusan authorities in many different ways”, - guesses Andrei Yahorau.

Let us recall that the official two-day visit of the Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic took place of March 12-14. The visit presupposed negotiations between the Belarusan and the Serbian leaders both for broad and narrow discussion, meetings of the Serbian party with business groups of Belarus as well as visits to different plants and facilities in Minsk.

The political scientist Viktar Charnou in his comment to the EuroBelarus Information Service noted that there is no surprise that the Serbian President visited Belarus.

“Serbians have always orientated at Pan-Slavism, at defence of their national interests at the Balkans in their ideology. That is why after all attempts to build relations with the European Union, they still were half-turned at the East”, - he stated. Besides, Viktar Charnou made a supposition that the visit could have some economic goals.