Belarus senior diplomat: Minsk ready to normalize ties with Berlin on its own terms
November 9, Pozirk. Belarus is interested in normalizing relations with Germany, but “not at any cost,” Deputy Foreign Minister Ihar Siakreta has told a German delegation of politicians and activists from Brandenburg.
“Belarus wants normal relations with Germany,” state-run media quoted him as saying. “But we are not begging for anything or holding out our hands. Normalization is necessary, but not at any cost: not at the expense of ties with our closest allies and partners, primarily Russia and China, or by threatening our internal stability.”
The diplomat also blamed Berlin for “destroying Germany’s reputation in Belarus,” adding that restoring trust would not be easy.
The German delegation is headed by MP Sven Hornauf of the German Alliance for Social Justice and Economic Reason (BSW), a party that emerged in 2024 following a split of Die Linke. It combines left-wing economic policies with a right-wing stance on social policy. The six-day trip to Belarus reportedly seeks to restore contacts at the municipal level that existed before 2022.
A month ago, Hornauf said the delegation would include up to 40 people from the BSW, Greens and far-right AfD parties, as well as non-party members. However, this information was based on preliminary travel arrangements and did not reflect the final list of participants.
In an October 8 interview with Deutsche Welle, Hornauf said he had asked the Belarusian chargé d’affaires in Germany to help arrange the trip. Planned destinations in Belarus reportedly included Minsk, Hrodna, Viciebsk and Stolin. The MP stressed that official government meetings were not a major focus of the trip, noting that artists, musicians and athletes wanted to resume people-to-people contacts.
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June 23, Pozirk. Steffen Kotre, a representative of the right-wing populist minority in Germany’s Bundestag, visited Brest and gave an interview to Belarusian state media in which he defended Russia’s decision to go to war against Ukraine and expressed support for Alaksandar …
