Belarus Headlines

ČR, Belarus Promote Diplomatic Missions to Embassies. The Czech Republic and Belarus have promoted their diplomatic missions to the usual level of embassies, which indicates improvement of relations, as indicated on the official website of the Belarusian President Office and the Czech Foreign Ministry. The relations were tense due to Prague's serious criticism of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's authoritarian regime. As a result, the diplomatic representation was at the lower level of charge d'affaires. Czech Foreign Ministry said that their Ambassador Jiri Karas was already in Belarus and the Belarusian Ambassador Vasil Markovich would submit his credentials to President Vaclav Klaus next Thursday. The Belarusian Ambassador has not been to the Czech Republic since 2002, when the Czech Republic refused to grant visas to Lukashenka to attend the Prague summit of NATO. Last year, President Vaclav Klaus made it clear Lukashenka was not welcomed at an Eastern Partnership Summit in Prague. Klaus said he would not receive or shake hands with him. Lukashenka said Klaus had rough manners and did not arrive. There were a number of diplomatic rows in the past years. The two countries repeatedly expelled each other's diplomats. Minsk refused to grant visas to some Czech politicians, including former senator and current Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg in 2006.