Minsk’s muddled media clampdown could jeopardize warming of relations with the West.
Andrei Yahorau: Europe tries to test intentions of the Belarusan government
The visit of Tomislav Nikolić 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 Nikolić’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 Nikolić 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.
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