MINSK, December 16 (RIA Novosti) – Belarus is ready to improve its strained ties with the European Union, the country’s president Alexander Lukashenko said Monday.
“Belarus is ready to take all measures to normalize relations with the EU,” he said at a meeting in Minsk with several European ambassadors. “The ball is now in the court of the EU.
“I would like to stress once again that Belarus is extremely interested in stabilizing its relations with the EU. There’s no way for us to escape each other. We will have to live together as good neighbors,” Lukashenko said.
The West accuses the Belarusian authorities of persecuting the political opposition and denying citizens’ basic rights and freedoms, in particular freedom of expression. Lukashenko insists that the accusations are groundless and that putting pressure on Minsk is pointless.
Belarus has been subject to EU sanctions since 1996, two years after Lukashenko became president, though they were temporarily suspended in 1999 and 2008.
Belarusian-EU relations worsened in February 2012, when the EU expanded its sanctions against Belarus over its alleged human rights violations, after which Minsk ordered the Polish ambassador and EU envoy to leave the country. All EU member state ambassadors were temporarily withdrawn in response.
The ties were further strained by an incident in July 2012 in which a Swedish light aircraft dropped hundreds of teddy bears bearing pro-democracy slogans over Belarus.
