BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

07/10/2008

Relations With Belarus Could Be Intensified - Osce

MINSK. Oct 7 (Interfax) - Normalization of relations and a broader dialogue are possible between Europe and Belarus, said Alexander Stubb, Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Finnish Foreign Minister.

The time has come to turn a page in relations between Belarus and Europe, Stubb told Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk on Tuesday.

The balance has been shifting to the East after the crisis in Georgia, he said.

Correct moods prevail inside the European Union that Belarus is moving in the right direction. This is the main approach brought to Belarus, Stubb said.

Elections are a sensitive issue, he went on to say. No one can brush away the positive change in the 2008 elections, compared to 2000 and 2004, he said.

"We are ready to support you lifetime chairmanship of the OSCE for what you have said," Lukashenko replied.

"You are the first Western politician to have spoken of Belarus openly, objectively and publicly," he said.

"If Europe makes two steps, Belarus will make five. All this talk about the last dictator was invented overseas and brought to Europe. You can see who the dictator is in the world. Lukashenko cannot be seen in this way," the Belarusian president said.

"We know that if we behave like an elephant in a china shop, we will be treated in a similar way," he said.

"The trouble with Europe is that it has formulated the tasks in relation to Belarus, guided by just one viewpoint, the viewpoint of the so-called opposition," he said.

Source:

http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews+articleid_2688370.html

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