State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Latvia: Political prisoners' issue retards improvements

The political prisoners' issue is always urgent and aggravates further progress in political relations between Belarus and the European Union.

Andrejs Pildegovičs, state secretary for Foreign Affairs of Latvia, stated that when answering BelaPAN's questions.

He also stresses that the issue of political prisoners in Belarus is constantly raised during meetings with representatives of the official Minsk. "We hope that the problem of political prisoners will be resolved, and Belarus will gradually move toward the mainstream of legal democratic freedoms Pildegovičs said. — This also applies to the electoral process, respect for rights of national minorities and journalists, and the democratic process as a whole. But at the moment we, unfortunately, see no progress".

Pildegovičs expressed hope that Belarus "will finally become closer to Europe".

It should be reminded that Riga will host the summit of Eastern Partnership on May 21-22.