President of Belarus meets with US Secretary of State

1 февраля 2020
The meeting between Alexander Lukashenko and the U.S. Secretary of State was the central issue of the media space on Saturday.
 

This is the first visit of the U.S. Secretary of State to Belarus in 26 years 

However, the protracted pause does not mean that Minsk and Washington have not worked together all this time in the field of security, economy, energy and human rights. Michael Pompeo met with the President of Belarus in person and spent about 3 hours at the Independence Palace.

President of Belarus: "I am sincerely happy to meet you. For at least two reasons. First of all, you're one of the architects of modern US policy. That's the way it's supposed to be. Secondly, it is very good that after various misunderstandings between Belarus and the United States, absolutely groundless misunderstandings of the past authorities, you risked coming to Minsk and looking at this country. I absolutely do not hide it, we together with the Americans held a number of events in the line of our intelligence services. These activities concerned the fight against terrorism, trafficking in persons. We have conducted several very serious operations to counter the proliferation of nuclear elements". 

Michael Pompeo, US Secretary of State: "The United States commends Belarus for its role in countering terrorism and maintaining security in the region. I hope that we can continue to develop this direction. The U.S. is not asking for a choice between relations with us and with Russia. We want to invest so that Belarus had sovereignty and independence. I know about the long history of Belarusian-Russian relations. But we don't talk about choice, we talk about diplomacy. We will soon appoint an ambassador. He will be here, and you will see that we are working on economic development so that American enterprises will come here, new jobs will be created. We are ready to support you in this direction".