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Išbandyti
2012 04 16

EU ambassadors to return to Minsk together

The European Union member states' ambassadors who have been recalled from Minsk will return to the Belorussian capital together, Lithuania's Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis has said on Monday.
Audronius Ažubalis
Audronius Ažubalis / Andriaus Ufarto/BFL nuotr.

"A meeting of the Political and Security Committee is underway where ambassadors of all EU member-states are discussing and making proposals. However, I can only restate that we will return together just as we all left together. There can be no selection. The EU should remain united," the minister told journalists on Monday.

Asked whether Belarus was refusing entry to diplomatic envoys of some specific EU countries, Ažubalis replied: "Maybe."

"But I'm saying once again – the EU has always been united in this respect, and it will remain united," he emphasized.

The Lithuanian diplomacy chief refused to speculate on the date of decision to return ambassadors to Minsk.

"Lithuania will firts of all propose to discuss the release and rehabilitation of all political prisoners. Pardoning them without rehabilitation means keeping a person with a stain or on the hook," Ažubalis added.

In comment on statements made by Belorussian Ambassador to Vilnius Vladimir Drazhin last week - that Lithuania's support to EU sanctions against Belarus jeopardized the transit of Belorussian cargo and large budget revenues - the minister said: "We view them as undue and inadequate."

In the end of February, the EU recalled all of its ambassadors from Belarus for consultations after Minsk decided to expel some of them in protest of the bloc's new sanctions over the human rights situation in the country.

Last month, EU foreign ministers decided to introduce sanctions against 29 companies owned by three businessmen linked to the regime of Belarus' hard-line President Alexander Lukashenko. Another 12 individuals were blacklisted.

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