Belarus leader hosts US envoy for talks, latest effort to improve ties
ABC News
Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday hosted a U.S. envoy for talks in the Belarus capital of Minsk, the latest step in the isolated leader’s effort to improve ties with the West
TALLINN, Estonia -- TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday hosted a U.S. envoy for talks in the Belarus capital of Minsk, the latest step in the isolated leader’s effort to improve ties with the West.
Lukashenko met with President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Belarus, John Coale, according to the presidential press service. State news agency Belta quoted Lukashenko saying topics on the agenda include restoring the normal functioning of the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, which suspended operations in 2022, the "release of so-called political prisoners,” as well as sanctions and other economic issues.
The last time U.S. officials met with Lukashenko, in December, Washington announced easing some sanctions, and 123 prisoners were released and sent to Ukraine and Lithuania.
A close ally of Russia, Minsk has faced isolation for years. Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been sanctioned repeatedly by Western countries — both for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Lukashenko’s rule was challenged after a 2020 presidential election, when tens of thousands poured into the streets to protest a vote they viewed as rigged. They were the largest demonstrations since Belarus became independent following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Bulldozers have been digging pits in a cemetery in the Afghan capital ahead of a mass funeral for some of the victims of what officials have said was a Pakistani airstrike that hit a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul on Monday night
Attacks on a town along Sudan’s border with Chad have killed at least 17 people and injured 123, Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said
Rwanda has told a panel of international arbitrators that Britain still owes it 100 million pounds ($115 million) under a controversial refugee resettlement deal that Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped immediately after taking office in 2024
Georgia’s Patriarch Ilia II, the longtime head of the Georgian Orthodox Church and one of the country’s most influential figures, has died at the age of 93
A Thai zoo said police has arrested a man after he entered the enclosure of Moo Deng, the viral pygmy hippo
Peru’s prime minister has resigned from her post
Republic of Congo’s President N’Guesso reelected to his fifth consecutive term, according to provisional results
The Colosseum has a bright new look following a restoration using the same travertine marble of ancient Rome to recreate parts of columns from 2,000 years ago
Hungary and Slovakia are agreeing to build a new pipeline that links their refineries in what they say will boost regional fuel security
Japanese atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori has died at age 88
The Vatican appeals tribunal has declared a mistrial in the Holy See’s big “trial of the century.”
France’s far right has made gains in the first round of municipal elections in the southeast, while big cities head to a runoff, including Paris, Marseille, and Lyon
The U.K. government says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due in London