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Belarus still undecided on its representative at Eastern Partnership summit

Belarus has not yet decided who will represent it at an Eastern Partnership summit to be held in Vilnius on November 28 and 29, Deputy Foreign Minister Alena Kupchyna told reporters in the House of Representatives on Friday.

“Less than a week is left until the summit,” she said. “The issue has not yet been resolved, but it will be resolved in the next few days, maybe even today.”

On October 15, Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrius Krivas presented invitations to the Third Eastern Partnership Summit to the ambassadors of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

Signed by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the invitations were addressed to the Eastern Partnership member countries in general, not to specific officials.

Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey said on November 19 following talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, that Belarus had no special expectations of the summit and therefore Minsk believed that the level of the country’s representation should not be very high.

The results of the summit will hardly be very significant for Belarus, Mr. Makey said. However, he added that Belarus “is interested in its involvement in the Eastern Partnership because we believe that this will help normalize our relations with the European Union.” //BelaPAN