2013-10-16 11:19

Alexander Lukashenko not listed on invitation to Eastern Partnership's Vilnius summit

The invitation handed to Belarus to attend the Eastern Partnership summit does not specify the name of its President Alexander Lukashenko, who is blacklisted by the European Union, Lithuanian diplomats have confirmed to BNS.
Aliaksandras Lukašenka
Alexander Lukashenko / „Reuters“/„Scanpix“ nuotr.

"The invitations have been forwarded to countries, not a specific official," the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry's Public Relations Division told BNS when asked whether Lukashenko was invited to the event.

Analogous invitations were handed to ambassadors of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine by Lithuania's Foreign Vice-Minister Andrius Krivas in Vilnius earlier on Tuesday.

The letters of invitation were signed by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė, the European Council President Herman van Rompuy, and the European Commission's President José Manuel Barroso.

At the Vilnius summit, the EU is expected to sign Association and Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine and initial similar agreements with Moldova and Georgia.

The Belarusian hard-line president and a few hundred other officials of the regime are barred from entering the EU due to repressions against the opposition and human rights violations.

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