Poland and EU consider future relations with Belarus
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
14.10.2015 10:42
As European leaders ponder the future of sanctions against Belarus in the wake of the country's presidential election results, senior aide of reelected Belarusian President Lukashenko said his dream was to model Belarusian-Polish relations on those of Germany and Poland in the 1990s.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko won Sunday's election by a landslide. Photo: EPA/TATYANA ZENKOVICH
“I would like Poland to be for Belarus was Germany was for Poland in the 1990s when Germany was the source of capital and new technologies which may prove to be the engine of rapid development. Russia will not give us that. But it is now Poland’s turn to take the initiative. It was you [Poland – ed.] who forced sanctions against Belarus,” Siarhiej Kizima, Head of the Department of International Relations of the Academy of Public Administration attached to the Belarusian Presidential Chancellery, told Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
The Belarusian economy managed to avoid the brunt of the financial crisis in recent years, but the country experienced a recession this year, the daily writes, adding that Belarusian authorities must present a plan of reforms and to raise money from the West.
Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna said in Luxembourg that Poland will not be "firmly opposed" to the lifting of EU trade sanctions against Belarus. The sanctions were imposed against the Minsk authorities in view of the country's repeated human rights violations and the persecution of the democratic opposition.
Polish Foreign Minister Schetyna stressed that before a decision on sanctions against Belarus is taken, authorities should assess the Belarusian presidential elections last weekend.
The Central Election Commission in Belarus announced on Monday that Alexander Lukashenko won the presidential elections in the country with a landslide victory of 83.5 percent of the ballot, securing a fifth consecutive term. However, leading Belarusian opposition figures said the elections were rigged as they had been in the past and that it was too early to consider lifting sanctions against the Minsk authorities. (rg/rk)
Source: Dziennik Gazeta Prawna