French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday promised to help with mediation in the political crisis in Belarus, while Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out against “unprecedented external pressure.”
Macron spoke during a visit to Lithuania after meeting with Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya that was seen as a major show of support for the activist.
“We will do our best as Europeans to help mediate and we will come back to OSCE mediation in order to progress,” Macron told reporters, referring to an offer from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Photo: Reuters
“Our objective is for this mediation to begin in the next few days or weeks,” he said.
“The aim is a peaceful transition, the release of people who are in prison for their political opinions and the holding of free elections under international observation,” he said.
Belarus has been in upheaval since an Aug. 9 presidential election in which Tikhanovskaya claimed victory against the incumbent Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994.
Tikhanovskaya fled to Lithuania in the aftermath of the election as mass protests in the streets of the former Soviet republic were met with a crackdown in which thousands were arrested.
The EU has refused to recognize the result of the presidential election and Macron on Sunday said that Lukashenko “has to go.”
The meeting with Macron in Vilnius was Tikhanovskaya’s most high-profile one so far.
She has previously addressed the UN Human Rights Council and the European Parliament, and has met with EU foreign ministers and the leaders of Poland and Lithuania.
Tikhanovskaya, a political novice whose blogger husband is in prison in Belarus accused of trying to overthrow the government, said after the meeting that she had accepted an invitation to speak before the French parliament.
She said the crisis should be resolved “as soon as possible,” and new free and fair elections should be held before the end of the year.
Macron “supports the idea of mediation because he understands that powerful countries need to be involved to begin negotiations with Lukashenko. He is ready to help with this,” she said.
“I think he will speak with the Russian side about Belarus and will do everything possible to involve Russia in these negotiations,” she said.
Macron has said that Putin, Lukashenko’s main ally, is favorable to mediation in the Belarus crisis by the OSCE.
However, Putin yesterday said in televised remarks that Belarus was in a “difficult situation” and was facing “unprecedented external pressure.”
Addressing a forum on the Belarusian and Russian regions, he said that Moscow was ready to stand by Minsk, describing ties as “timeless and all-weather.”
Putin has promised to provide Lukashenko with security assistance if the political crisis worsens and gave Belarus a loan of US$1.5 billion.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
RSS