Lithuanian Foreign Ministry: Nobody is planning to organize reforms for Belarus

The European Union has a strategy on Belarus, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius assures.

The EU has a single strategy on Belarus and Lithuania can influence the strategy, said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius at a press conference on January 5.

“We used to observe and wait. We also used to build walls which resulted in isolation but the isolation has hardly been justified. This isolation limits cooperation and removes the possibilities of establishing contacts. We have proved that our contacts and interaction have brought some results. Giving motivation for changes and relaxing the pressure is part of this strategy,” Euroradio quotes Lithuanian Foreign Minister following ru.delfi.lt.

However, nobody is planning to do anything including reforms and choosing the way of development for Belarus, the Lithuanian diplomat noted. At the same time, there is a hope that the Belarusian state will be changing as a result of contacts with the Western countries.

Armenia (that joined the Customs Union not long ago) wants to sign a special agreement with the EU, Linkevičius added. Belarus also intends to do it, he said. This variant is possible, he believes: “Anything that lets our neighbours establish relations with the EU and find mutually interesting things without forgetting about the democratic values and without getting back to violence would be good. We have seen violence and we do not want it to repeat. This is a term and the rest is part of the strategy.”

“I hope very much that [the process] will not be interrupted by some events that may happen and we will manage to keep it up,” the diplomat added.

Meanwhile, Belsat recalls, the Belarusian foreign ministry’s report on last year’s foreign policy trends describes the European Union’s move to suspend restrictive measures against Belarus as an important development.