Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabriel Landsberg said on Tuesday that Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko could begin to see himself as a Western leader after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday.
He stated that he saw no reason to talk to Lukashenko, who is responsible for the migration crisis at the Belarusian border with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
“Lukashenko may start to feel like he is becoming a recognized leader in the West, one of the possible solvers, although in fact he has caused it himself. To be honest, I don’t really see what he can talk about,” the minister told reporters in the Seimas.
According to Landsberg, the authoritarian leader of a neighboring country must find himself in a “situation of pressure”.
“If we start talking to him, the most dangerous thing is that he will release 100 people and demand new talks, release 50 and invite 50 others. suffer two others – they are determined repeatedly, according to the law of the pendulum, “he judged.
The minister admitted that he had learned about the conversation between Merkel and Lukashenko on Twitter as a fact that had already happened and that the news was “a bit unexpected” for him.
“It all looked weird last night, we had it all day [Eiropas Savienības Ārlietu padomes] sitting. It did not say anything about any calls – there was a common position, support for Lithuania and Poland. (..) At the end of the sitting, we were presented with this new information, “Landsberg said after returning from Brussels.
Meanwhile, the office of Lithuanian President Gitan Nauseda informed the news agency BNS that the head of state “had been informed about the upcoming talks in advance”.
The foreign minister, for his part, said he had received “very concise information” from Germany so far and had not seen a record of the conversation.
“Once the information has reached us, I cannot guarantee that it is true, but it would explain a lot – it has been agreed that this call will not be made public. Maybe it was hoped to exchange information, find out the position. (..) This could explain the confusion regarding as to who was the first to communicate – regarding the fact that Lukashenko was the first to communicate and the Germans followed later, “Landsberg said.
“It seems it could have been that confidence in Lukashenko was too high,” he added.
The Lithuanian Foreign Minister was not surprised by President Nauseda’s statements to the British broadcaster BBC about the opportunity to speak to Lukashenko.
“Before that, he was quite opposed to it,” the minister said.
According to German government spokesman Stephen Zeibert, Merkel spoke with Lukashenko on Monday about the “difficult situation on the border between Belarus and the EU, especially the need for humanitarian aid for refugees and migrants there.”
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonīte said on Tuesday that she understood the German Chancellor’s concerns about the situation at the EU’s eastern borders – especially because most of the migrants gathered at the Belarusian-Polish border did not hide their destination as Germany. At the same time, she admitted that she was not surprised that Lukashenko’s call to Belarus was used by Belarusian propagandists.
Meanwhile, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lithuanian Seimas, Sigismund Pavilonis, emphasized that Merkel’s call to Lukashenko was not in line with Germany’s official position at Monday’s EU Foreign Affairs Council, which decided to impose tougher sanctions on Belarus. He acknowledged that this had surprised not only himself but also his German colleagues.
“Another Friday with a candidate for the CDU [Vācijas kristīgo demokrātu] As leader Norbert Retgen, we signed a statement in which we clearly emphasized that Alexander Lukashenko was a criminal to be tried (..), that new sanctions were needed, that Belarus should be declared a no-fly zone. “I am well aware that this is the current mood among those who are talking about a coalition agreement, especially among the Greens, who are likely to lead Germany ‘s foreign policy,” he said.
According to Paviļonis, Merkel’s call was her personal initiative, which contradicts the course taken by the EU.
“Any division of the EU will help autocratic regimes strengthen their narrative, which we hear every day. Our unity is the only one that can protect us from such crises by clearly naming the culprit. But the culprit is Lukashenko, behind him. [Krievijas prezidents Vladimirs] “Putin, who, among other things, Mrs Merkel has made clear in the past, and, indeed, other autocratic regimes, is the same China that consistently covers these activities at the United Nations,” he said.
–
