Belarus made a statement that the recommendations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country to reduce the number of the diplomatic corps of Lithuania are not desirable, but binding.

This was stated by the press secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Anatoly Glaz in response to Vilnius's refusal to reduce its diplomatic staff.

“The proposals we have made are exclusively in the plane of the sovereign rights of Belarus, and no one is obliged to - and, in fact, was not going to - discuss this with the Lithuanian side.

If we move away from diplomatic casuistry, it means that such proposals are mandatory for the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ”the press secretary was quoted by the BelTA news agency.

The day before, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus asked Polish and Lithuanian colleagues to reduce the diplomatic presence in the Belarusian republic to 18 and 14 people, respectively, within a week.

“It is quite obvious that for a long time and patiently we tracked all openly unfriendly gestures towards our country from Poland and Lithuania ... In this regard, the ambassadors of Poland and Lithuania have been summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry today.

In view of the unambiguously destructive activity on the part of these countries, they were offered to bring the composition of their diplomatic missions in Belarus to parity with Belarusian foreign missions in the respective countries by October 9, 2020.

For Lithuania, this is from 25 to 14 diplomats, for Poland - from 50 to 18, ”RIA Novosti quotes the press secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

As Anatoly Glaz noted, Minsk's demands to Vilnius and Warsaw are conditioned by "a special destructive role that the leadership of Poland and Lithuania has decided to play in the current situation" and are not aimed "at deteriorating relations between neighboring peoples."

A spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry also recalled Article 11 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

“In the absence of a specific agreement on the number of personnel of the mission, the host State may propose that the number of personnel of the mission be kept within the limits that it considers reasonable and normal, taking into account the circumstances and conditions existing in the host State and the needs of the mission,” he said.

According to Glaz, the Belarusian side had earlier called on Warsaw and Vilnius "for prudence, for a thoughtful, objective and deep assessment of current events, for understanding the importance and fate of dialogue with neighbors, respecting the interests of each other's citizens, and for the urgent need to maintain stability in the region."

  • Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus

  • RIA News

  • © Victor Tolochko

“Instead, in response, we receive not only tubs of dirt, but also impudent attempts to push our interests with a battering ram, open interference in internal affairs, ignorance of the basic sovereign rights of Belarus, direct sponsorship of openly extremist calls and actions.

We hoped to the end that these archaic practices had long gone into history, but in this case we regretfully have to state the opposite, ”stressed the official representative of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry.

Glaz also clarified that the ambassadors of Belarus to Poland and Lithuania are being recalled to Minsk from October 5 for consultations.

"The style of conversation is unacceptable."

Let us remind you that in response to the request of the Belarusian side to reduce the number of diplomatic employees in the republic, the head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry Linus Linkevicius told reporters that Vilnius does not intend to recall its ambassador in Minsk for consultations and to reduce the diplomatic staff.

Later, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau made a similar statement.

In his opinion, channels of communication with Belarusian colleagues should be preserved.

He wrote about this on his Twitter page.

BY wezwała swoich Ambasadorów w PL i LT na konsultacje i oczekuje tego samego od 🇵🇱PL i 🇱🇹LT.

Razem z @LinkeviciusL jesteśmy przekonani, że kanały komunikacji muszą zostać zachowane i na tym etapie nie zamierzamy wzywać naszych Ambasadorów na konsultacje.

- Zbigniew Rau (@RauZbigniew) October 2, 2020

At the same time, the Belarusian authorities have repeatedly stated that the protests that began in the country after the presidential elections are being coordinated from abroad.

So, on September 9, the head of state, Alexander Lukashenko, in an interview with RT and a number of other Russian media outlets, reported on the influence on the republic, in particular, from Poland and Lithuania.

“The reasons for the aggravation of relations are obvious - everything revolved around the elections and their results.

And how Lithuania and Poland behaved in this situation.

These two states actively interfered in Belarusian internal affairs, supported the opposition candidates, giving them a semblance of legitimacy.

Naturally, any state will react extremely negatively to this, ”Belarusian political analyst Aleksey Dzermant told RT in a commentary.

In turn, Konstantin Voronov, head of the sector of regional problems and conflicts of the European Political Studies Department of the IMEMO RAN, noted that now there is a "spasm of the diplomatic struggle between the parties."

“Minsk does not want to let diplomatic affairs take its course, so it is taking active steps, to which, of course, the neighboring countries are reacting,” the expert explained in an interview with RT.

At the same time, according to Voronov, "the style of conversation between Poland and Lithuania on the issue of reducing the number of their diplomats is unacceptable for the Belarusian side."

In his opinion, Poland and Lithuania "are deliberately trying to create a diplomatic scandal with their inappropriate statements."

  • Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linus Linkevicius

  • AFP

  • © Reuters

“Under these conditions, they intend to slam the door loudly and show character in order to maximize the period during which some of the diplomats will need to leave Belarus.

However, from the outside it looks like an extremely strange position, ”the expert believes.

"Activity of destructive diplomacy"

In a conversation with RT, Konstantin Voronov stressed that Warsaw and Vilnius are reacting so sharply to Minsk's demand to reduce their diplomatic corps, "since their ability to somehow influence the situation in Belarus is extremely limited."

“Belarus, on the other hand, quite reasonably seeks to reduce the presence of these diplomats, since their missions often go beyond the stated goals,” the expert explained.

According to Voronov, by reducing the diplomatic mission, Minsk seeks to reduce the activity of destructive diplomacy on the part of these states. 

In particular, experts name the activities of Polish and Lithuanian non-profit organizations (NPOs) in Belarus among the reasons why Minsk put forward the corresponding requirements for Vilnius and Warsaw.

According to Voronov, these NGOs are usually divided into so-called think tanks and institutions that fund opposition media outlets.

“In particular, the Internet portal of the opposition“ Charter-97 ”is financially supported by several Polish foundations.

The headquarters of this publication is located in Warsaw, ”said the expert.

As for Lithuanian non-profit organizations, the Lithuanian government openly declares its support for the Belarusian opposition and is actually training new personnel for it, the political scientist believes.

For example, in early September, the press service of the Lithuanian government published a statement on the approval of the project of assistance to the opposition to Belarus.

It was decided to allocate 100 scholarships to Belarusian students studying in Lithuania, and € 200,000 - to the European Humanities University (EHU), which was closed in Minsk and is now based in Vilnius.

At the same time, the Prime Minister of Lithuania Saulius Skvernelis said that the adopted plan is not the last step in supporting the neighboring state, which "for several weeks does not put up with the results of illegal elections."

The sanctions war between Belarus and the EU also aggravated Minsk's relations with Warsaw and Vilnius.

As a reminder, on October 2, restrictions came into force against 40 Belarusian officials.

In response, Minsk announced that it would activate the sanctions list against representatives of the European Union.

As noted in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, the consequence of the further promotion of the "sanctions flywheel" by the EU may be the rupture of diplomatic relations.

In this confrontation, Moscow expressed its solidarity with Minsk.

The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, in her commentary called the sanctions of the European countries "open and unacceptable pressure" on the Belarusian authorities and said that the Belarusian reciprocal sanctions list would be in effect in Russia as well.

As for the situation related to the Polish and Lithuanian diplomats and their refusal to voluntarily leave the borders of Belarus, “Minsk has no choice but to simply expel the diplomats of these countries,” Aleksey Dzermant believes.

“In any case, Belarus can afford to expel the number of diplomats it considers necessary and reduce the level of diplomatic interaction.

In response, Lithuania and Poland are likely to take asymmetric measures.

At the same time, an extreme step is a complete rupture of diplomatic relations.

However, the parties are unlikely to decide on this, ”the expert predicted.

Konstantin Voronov, in turn, notes that Minsk can also declare some of the Lithuanian and Polish diplomats persona non grata.

“Even a scenario close to the forcible expulsion of these persons from the country is not ruled out,” the analyst believes.

  • Opposition protest in Belarus

  • Reuters

Poland and Lithuania, for their part, “can intensify work with the opposition” in response to the actions of their Belarusian colleagues, the expert believes.

“Warsaw and Vilnius will strive to internationalize aspects of the Belarusian crisis, to bring them to the European level, so that Europe deals with each trifling matter separately.

We will see a lot of interesting things in this direction, ”the analyst concluded.