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Berlusconi due in Belarus amid warming ties with West

24 November 2009, 15:47 CET
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(MINSK) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will go to Belarus next week, officials said Tuesday, becoming the first Western leader in years to visit an ex-Soviet republic long considered a pariah by the West.

Word of the visit to take place Monday first came from the Italian ambassador to Belarus and was later confirmed by officials in the Belarus foreign ministry. It comes amid a quickening thaw in Belarus' long-strained relations with the West.

This was underlined again last week when EU foreign ministers agreed to seek improved ties with Belarus, and refrained from enforcing a travel ban on its leaders, who were until recently accused of stifling human rights.

Western foreign ministers have travelled to Minsk over the past year but no Western leader has travelled there at least since Washington branded Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko "the last dictator in Europe" eight years ago.

Experts said they could not recall any Western leader visiting Belarus since Lukashenko first came to power in 1994.

The announcement of Berlusconi's planned visit came from the Italian ambassador to Minsk, Giulio Prigioni, who was quoted by the state news agency Belta and state television.

Belarus foreign ministry officials also told AFP that the visit was planned, though there was no immediate comment from Rome.

"Belarus and Italy... could in the near future make a major breakthrough in mutually advantageous cooperation, which the upcoming November 30 visit to Minsk of Silvio Berlusconi shows," Prigioni was quoted as saying.

He said Belarus and Italy were at an "important stage" in their relations and had entered "a fundamentally new era of cooperation." He did not elaborate.

Belarus is located in a strategic pocket of territory between Russia and western European states and is an important transit route for Russian oil and gas shipped to Europe.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was also scheduled to visit Minsk on Friday and the Kremlin has for years sought to fortify bonds with Belarus that were weakened following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Political analysts described the decision by Berlusconi to visit Belarus as a significant milestone in efforts by Lukashenko, backed by the European Union, to bring his country out of its long diplomatic isolation from the West.

"This really is a sensation because not a single leader of a Western country has visited Minsk since Lukashenko came to power," commented Alexander Klaskovsky, an expert with the independent think-tank Belapan.

At the same time, he said, Italy has important business interests in Belarus and has long been at the forefront of those EU countries that favor strengthening relations with the Lukashenko administration.

Alexei Korol, editor of the independent news weekly Novy Chas, said Berlusconi's visit would in particular strengthen Lukashenko's hand in managing relations with the Kremlin.

"This will make it clear that Russia is not Belarus' only political ally," Korol said.


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