29 July 2009, 23:50
Belarusian MFA: we continue considering the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia
Minsk is still studying "the complex issue of the status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia." This was stated on July 28 by Sergey Martynov, Foreign Minister of Belarus, at a press conference on results of his meeting with the EU's ministerial "troika".
"The situation around South Ossetia and Abkhazia is a complicated issue for everybody; we go on considering it," the ITAR-TASS quotes Minister Martynov as saying.
In her turn, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU Commissioner on Foreign Relations and Policy of Neighbourhood, said that the European Union is ready to consider an anti-crisis help to Belarus, as reported by the "NEWSru.com". However, she has refuted journalists' assumptions that rendering assistance to Belarus can be conditioned by the process of democratic reforms or Minsk's attitude to the status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. "The point is exclusively in meeting the IMF requirements," she has emphasized.
According to Ms Ferrero-Waldner, it is too early yet to announce the sum of the above help. The EU will give the answer only when the IMF states that Minsk has fulfilled all the conditions for receiving the international anti-crisis help, the Radio Liberty reports.
At the same time the Commissioner has recognized that the total amount of EU's cooperation with Belarus undertaken today under the programmes of European Neighbourhood and Eastern Partnership will depend on "the irreversibility of democratic transformations in this country and respect of human rights." According to her story, the next estimate of this process will be made by the EU Foreign Ministers in November.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 22 Alexander Lukashevich, deputy head of the Chief Consular Administration of Belarusian MFA, told journalists in Minsk that the Ministry strongly recommends Belarusian citizens to observe the laws of Georgia when planning their trips to Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Officials in Russia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia have perceived this statement with bewilderment.
