Another European negotiator to visit Minsk

Andris Teikmanis, the Secretary of State in the Latvian Foreign Ministry, plans to pay a working visit to Belarus on February 3 to discuss the Belarus-EU relations and other issues.

Journalists learned this information from Belarusian MFA spokesman Andrei Savinykh on Thursday.

“The parties are expected to discuss the current state and prospects for the bilateral cooperation, Belarus-EU relations and other issues of common interest,” the MFA representative noted.

Savinykh said Teikmanis would meet with foreign minister Syarhei Martynau and deputy foreign minister Syarhei Aleinik. Besides, the secretary of state of the Latvian MFA is supposed to have a meeting with minister for transport and communication Ivan Shcherba, who also heads the Belarusian part of the Belarusian-Latvian intergovernmental commission for economic and sci-tech cooperation.

“The Latvian MFA, which strives to cooperate with the dictatorial regime and stands against imposing economic sanctions, is granted a real opportunity to see what is going on in Belarus. Would negotiator Teirkanis like to meet with political prisoners and hear from them about torture and ill-treatment taking place in the neighbouring country in the 21st century? Or to demand the Belarusian MFA to organize this meeting? He should look into the eyes of relatives of Sannikov, Bandarenka, Statkevivh, Byalyatski, Dashkevich and others… Maybe this will allow the Latvian MFA to understand that Europe’s greed kills imprisoned people and belief in democratic values Europe declares here and there,” Pavel Marynich, the coordinator of European Belarus civil initiative, commented on the visit of another European negotiator to Minsk.