Situation in Belarus, discussed by Aurescu and Belarusian opposition leader Tikhanovskaya, at Bled Strategic Forum

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu had a meeting on Thursday with the leader of the opposition in Belarus, Sviatlana Tikhanovskaya, on the sidelines of the 16th reunion of the Bled (Slovenia) Strategic Forum, at her request, MAE (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) shows, agerpres reports.

According to the quoted source, during the meeting, Minister Bogdan Aurescu reiterated "the Romanian side's concern towards the continuous deterioration of the internal situation in Belarus and towards the severe and systematic violation of human rights in this country".

Furthermore, the Romanian Minister saluted the aspirations and closeness of Belarus citizens for democratic values and fundamental rights and freedoms.

The Romanian Minister reminded of the forms of support granted by Romania in the benefit of Belarus citizens, mentioning, among others, Romania's participation to activating OSCE's Moscow Mechanism, namely supporting the creation of of the "International Accountability Platform for Belarus" mechanism, targeted for documenting serious violations of human rights in this country, support of the four EU sanction package adopted until now, the contribution of 100,000 Euro granted through the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs last year through the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), for supporting civil society and independent mass media, as well as Romania granting 100 scholarships to Belarus students, persecuted by the regime.

Furthermore, he reminded of the initiative in September 2020 of president Klaus Iohannis, who, along with the Polish and Lithuanian counterparts, proposed to prepare an economic support plan from the EU for a democratic Belarus, and based on this proposal, the European Commission presented this year a solid project worth 3 billion Euro.

Minister Aurescu showed that the support will continue, where granting a similar sum this year is being examined in order to support the civil society and independent mass-media, also through the EED. Moreso, he condemned using immigrants by Belarus against some member states such as Lithuania, Latvia or Poland.