US, Belarus to reset relations?

The US Congress delegation that arrived in Belarus Tuesday is two-time bigger that the number of diplomatic staff at the US embassy in Minsk. Apparently, Congressmen really wanted to talk about it with Alexander Lukashenka. “We would like to monitor the processes that are taking place in Belarus. Only this way, we will be able to understand you better”.

“We are not understood, because you don’t have information”, Belarus leader reiterated yesterday.

Does it mean that everything is OK? Bur here is where mutual advantageous conditions take the floor…

“Belarus is prepared to return to talks about the restoration of a full-fledged presence on condition of lifting the sanctions against our country and their legal basis – Belarus Democracy Act”, Belta quoted Lukashenka as saying.

“Belarus Democracy Act has very clear provisions. It talks about human rights. We expressed our concern over Belarus’ poor human rights record, especially in the fields associated with the freedom of speech and the freedom of assembly. We stressed that words are good, but deeds are much more important”, Charter’97 quoted Congressman Christopher Smith as saying.
But, the mutual conditions do not seem to be a deadlock this time. They just needed to be voiced, according to the rules of a diplomatic game.

It is worth noting that the both sides could have avoided saying this but they did. We also note that it is useless to try to find out who initiated the meeting. However, everyone noticed that the visit was skillfully timed with IMF’s decision to approve the next installment of Belarus loan and to increase the loan by one billion US dollars.

Thus, Belarus president has voiced an important thesis regarding the status of the countries. He said: “We are the heart of Europe”… “The United States is a huge empire which has interests in many spots of the world; we realize that”. The bottom-line of his message is: “We realize your interests”.

Benjamin Cardin, the head of the US delegation, gave a positive signal to the Belarusian regime: “with the election of a new US president, there are new opportunities for a change in the relations between our countries”.

In September 2008, Lukashenka compared Obama with himself in an interview with The World Street Journal. He said then: “He (Obama) is a 100-percent Lukashenka. When I came to power after the break-up of the Soviet Union, there were empty shelves in groceries and there was a financial crisis… This is a new, young, educated person. He is a quicker and more energetic person who can have a more realistic view at the world’s reality”.

In marketing science, there is a notion – ‘relations reset’. It means that when partners seem to have got used to each other, but there is no dynamics. Then, relations are reset to zero in order to raise them again and give those dynamics. Besides, Belarus president said: “This should be done as soon as possible”. It sounds like another important signal!

It is interesting that new relations with Europe began with the release political prisoners. Apparently, Lukashenka sees pardon as a chess-player’s favorite move: E2-E4. “You know, sometimes it seems to me that if the West found 5-6 political prisoners more in Belarus and asked to release them in exchange for several steps towards us, we would have been happy to free them”, Lukashenka said in November to The World Street Journal. You can look at the release of US citizen Emmanuel Zeltser as a positive beginning.

One can say that Lukashenka has pardoned the relations with Washington. On the other hand, one can say that the US delegation made an offer to the president which was impossible to reject. The essence of Minsk’s proposals is to build relations with Washington with the same positive dynamics as between Minsk and Europe plus IMF loans which are simply saving our economy.

But, there is one very noticeable difference between Washington and Brussels in their relations with Minsk. Europe almost does not notice the Belarusian opposition, with the latter getting nervous. It is vice verse with the US. During their meeting with Lukashenka, American senators and congressmen talked a lot about the opposition and its interests.

The last positive contact between our countries took place exactly one year ago when Americans offered help to investigate the July 3 explosion in Minsk. We thanked them and promised to copy with this matter on our own. This is yet another point of engagement…


Photo: ByMedia