Foreign Minister Makei will attend Eastern Partnership Summit

Whereas Economy Minister Mikalai Snapkou will represent Belarus at an Eastern Partnership Business Forum.

Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makei will represent Belarus at an Eastern Partnership summit to be held in Vilnius on November 28 and 29, BelaPAN said.

Mr. Makei will present Belarus` "stance on and approaches to the Eastern Partnership and the program`s further development," said the Belarusian foreign ministry`s press office. 

Mr. Makei is scheduled to hold a number of bilateral meetings with representatives of European Union member states and Eastern Partnership countries and EU institutions on the side lines of the summit. 

Economy Minister Mikalai Snapkou will represent Belarus at an Eastern Partnership Business Forum that will be held one day before the summit. 

Let us recall that on October 15, Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrius Krivas presented invitations to the Third Eastern Partnership Summit to the ambassadors of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Signed by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the invitations were addressed to the Eastern Partnership member countries in general, not to specific officials. 

Mr. Makei said on November 19 following talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov that Belarus had no special expectations of the summit and therefore Minsk believed that the level of the country’s representation should not be "very high." The results of the summit will hardly be very significant for Belarus, Mr. Makei said. However, he added that Belarus "is interested in its involvement in the Eastern Partnership because we believe that this will help normalize our relations with the European Union."