Belarus FM to join EU talks

(BRUSSELS) - Belarus Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov, whose country has been in the EU firing line over rights issues, will attend talks with European Union counterparts next week, diplomats said Friday.

"The decision to invite the Belarus foreign minister was taken by all European Union member states, who thought it would provide a chance to communicate messages from the European Union," said a senior EU diplomat.

Martynov will join five other foreign ministers from ex-Soviet states for so-called Eastern Partnership talks with the 27 EU ministers.

Launched in 2009 by Poland and Sweden, the Eastern Partnership aims to support reform in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine "with a view to accelerating their political association and economic integration" with the EU.

But relations have been fraught with both Belarus and Ukraine.

European ambassadors to Belarus were recalled earlier this year after Minsk responded to new EU sanctions over political repression by suggesting that envoys from Poland and the European Commission leave the country.

The EU has slapped an asset freeze and travel ban against 32 firms and 243 people in successive rounds of Belarus sanctions since 2004.