Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Diplomatic Advisor, Dzianis Kuchynski, shares the outcomes of the political activities of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Office over the past year. In the video below, Mr. Kuchynski details the key achievements in international relations and highlights the focus areas. Additionally, the advisor outlines the future directions of the International Department’s work.
Here’s a transcript of the video:
“Dear Belarusians,
As we approach the New Belarus Conference, we reflect on the outcomes of this busy political season. In this video, I would like to talk about what has been accomplished since last August in the international work of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Office.
Our President-elect made 59 official visits and held over 250 high-level meetings. Notably, more than half were with presidents, prime ministers, and parliamentary speakers. This political season opened up new countries, contacts, important international organizations, and cooperation formats for us.
For the first time, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya made official visits to Moldova, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Malta, and established working relations with Argentina and Armenia. Thanks to contacts with the Armenian authorities, we managed to save a Belarusian citizen who received political asylum in Armenia this year.
Belarus was invited to official G7 meetings for the first time, held in Capri this year. Twice this political season, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya represented our country at European Political Community summits in Spain and the UK. For the first time, an official meeting took place with the NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg. Belarus was also represented at major global forums such as the Munich Security Conference and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
This political season also marked the formalization of relations with international partners. The unprecedented Strategic Dialogue with the United States was launched, the Cooperation Agreement between the European Parliament and the democratic forces was signed, and Strategic Consultations with Canada were announced. The Office of Belarus Democratic Forces was launched in Prague, and the Belarus Contact Group Office was established in the Council of Europe. All this allows our partners to work with democratic Belarus now and will help us in the future during the transition of power.
Last year in Berlin, the first meeting of the new Alliance of Parliamentary Groups “For a Democratic Belarus”, which includes 24 parliaments, took place. A Belarus friendship group was also formed in the OSCE, which includes 29 countries. This summer, the OSCE invoked the Vienna Mechanism on Belarus.
Over the past year, we held bilateral conferences with our allies for the first time – particularly in Finland, Estonia, Luxembourg, and Sweden.
By the way, Sweden and Ukraine appointed new special envoys to work with democratic Belarus – Ambassador Christina Johannesson and Ambassador Ihor Kyzym. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya also met with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, this year.
In December 2023, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced additional financial aid for the democratic forces – totaling 140 million euros from the EU since 2020. In April 2024, Canada announced financial support for Belarusian media amounting to 1 million dollars. In Norway, an international humanitarian fund to support Belarusian political prisoners and their families was established, already raising over one million euros.
Together with Pavel Latushka, the National Anti-Crisis Management, and Belpol, we documented the crimes of the Lukashenka regime and shared them with our partners, leading to strong sanctions against the regime.
This year, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with the French President, Emmanuel Macron, the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, the UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. At all these meetings, she addressed the following issues:
- Support for political prisoners and steps for their release.
- Maintaining connections with Europe and preventing restrictions for Belarusians visiting Europe.
- Belarus’ European future and support for Belarus as part of the European family.
- Support for Belarusians in exile and help with the legalization of stay and receiving legal documents.
- Russian threat to Belarus. Ms. Tsikhanouskaya highlighted that Belarus must not become a consolation prize for Putin; Belarusians must be involved in any negotiations.
Undoubtedly, we achieved a lot this year, but we also faced a number of complex situations that we have not yet resolved. Therefore, next year Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya will continue to represent Belarus at a high level, defending the right and choice of the Belarusian people to live in a democratic country free from dictatorship.
