The Belarusian presidency said that President Alexander Lukashenko suggested to German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the European Union open a corridor for the crossing of 2,000 refugees to Europe, at a time when the crisis of asylum seekers continues at the Polish-Belarus border.
The presidency added that about 7,000 refugees are spread over its territory, including 2,000 refugees on Poland's borders.
Pressure is mounting on Belarus to keep asylum seekers away from the borders of the European Union, as the Group of Seven called on Thursday in Minsk to immediately end the migrant crisis.
On Wednesday, the Belarusian authorities talked about negotiations with the European Union, in an effort to resolve the crisis of asylum seekers stranded within its territory in the midst of very cold weather.
But the European Commission clarified - in a tweet on Twitter - that it is related to technical talks on the processes of returning asylum seekers seeking to enter the European Union, in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration and Belarus.
For the second time in 3 days, Lukashenko and Merkel held phone conversations, during which they discussed the refugee crisis, most of whom are from countries in the Middle East.
The Belarusian presidency said that Lukashenko and Merkel agreed that "the whole problem will be raised at the level of Belarus and the European Union," and talked about appointing officials from the two parties to start negotiations immediately.
hack attempts
But Berlin stated that it is a matter of cooperation between Minsk and the European Union to provide humanitarian assistance to refugees stranded at Poland's borders.
So far, the Polish forces deployed heavily on the borders are preventing entry to any of the stranded refugees, and the past days have witnessed confrontations between the two sides.
The Polish authorities announced the arrest of 100 asylum seekers who tried to penetrate its borders, and indicated that they had recorded more than 500 penetration attempts.
Warsaw accused Minsk of forcing the refugees to throw stones at soldiers and guards to distract them.
It added that the Polish Guard had issued 31 expulsion notices to people who had already entered.
On Wednesday, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak expected that the crisis would continue for months and possibly more years.
Poland - along with Lithuania and Latvia, which are also neighboring to Belarus - refuse to receive the refugees currently crowded on the Polish border.
Europe accuses Russia of supporting a scheme aimed at creating a migrant crisis by opening the way for them to cross from Belarus to Poland.
On the other hand, Russia on Thursday asked Europe not to accuse it of all the problems related to the issues of Ukraine and Belarus.
Thousands of soldiers were deployed on both sides of the Polish-Belarus border, and later Belarus conducted joint military exercises with Russian paratroopers.