Lukashenka waits for personal invitation to Eastern Partnership Summit

The Belarusian ruler hopes to receive a personal invitation to the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius.

“Minsk expects an invitation to the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius to be sent to Lukashenka. The Belarusian side will decide who will represent the country at the forum,” Belarus's Ambassador to Germany Andrei Hiro said at a discussion in Berlin on May 7, BelaPAN news agency reports.

The discussion was held as part of the events organised by the Minsk Forum. The Belarusian Ambassador took the floor after all speakers.

He reminded that Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg had handed Lukashenka an invitation to the 2009 inaugural Eastern Partnership Summit in Prague. Hiro noted that diplomats had received proposals to send another representative of Belarus to Prague.

Minsk accepted that “strange proposal”, because it laid great hopes on the EU's new policy, the ambassador explained. However, Hiro added, the Eastern Partnership programme was a “series of disappointments”.

The diplomat expressed a hope that Belarus would not be discriminated at the Vilnius summit in November. “We also hope that the final documents will contain a list of particular projects that should be implemented in the foreseeable future rather than a set of political declarations,” Hiro said.

Minsk and Brussels are unofficially reported to have consultations on Belarus's participation in the forthcoming summit. In particular, a possibility of inviting Belarusian foreign minister Uladzimir Makei, who is subject to the EU visa ban, is being discussed. This issue closely related to the release and rehabilitation of Belarusian political prisoners.