Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko is to end more than a decade of isolation by the West this weekend as he visits Italy and meets the Pope in the Vatican today.
Long accused of crushing fundamental rights in his ex-Soviet republic, Lukashenko leaves for Rome today after receiving a series of signals that the West was now willing at least to talk to him, if not to embrace him openly.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he would meet Lukashenko. The visit’s main feature will be an audience with Pope Benedict that the president hopes will help improve chilly relations between the Catholic Church and Orthodoxy and may lead to a meeting between their two leaders in Belarus.
“Meeting the Pope as part of his first visit is clearly a good idea if only for the reason that the president can be certain that there will be no unpleasant surprises,” said analyst Alexander Klaskovsky. “Everything will be fitting and according to plan.”
Lukashenko’s last official visit to a western country, France, dates back to 1995.
Belarus was until last year criticized repeatedly in Washington and Brussels, and Lukashenko was banned from entering the EU on the grounds that he had rigged his re-election in 2006.
The ban was suspended last year when the bloc noted improvements in Belarus’ record. Last week, Lukashenko secured an invitation to the EU’s May 7 “Eastern Partnership” summit in Prague aimed at providing support for six former Soviet republics and easing energy dependence on Moscow — though he is unlikely to attend himself.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
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