Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland and current chair of the Council of Europe Thórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörd Gylfadóttir. Representatives of Iceland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Belarus’ United Transitional Cabinet and the Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya also joined the meeting. They discussed the expansion of Belarus's participation in Council of Europe projects and the development of the Contact Group within the Council of Europe. Ms. Tsikhanouskaya emphasized the importance of the democratic forces, not Lukashenka, representing Belarus in the Council of Europe. This is an important step towards Belarus's accession to the Council of Europe, which is the democratic forces’ strategic goal that they are working on together. Support for this contact group and projects under its leadership is necessary. The contact group includes 10 representatives of the Belarusian civil society and democratic forces.
They also discussed bilateral cooperation with Iceland. Iceland has been supporting democratic Belarus on the international stage. The minister spoke at the General Assembly, where she talked about the need for international support for Belarus and mentioned Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya personally. They discussed the Council of Europe summit, as well as the representation of Belarus and its participation in this summit, which will take place in May in Reykjavik and feature the leaders of Council of Europe member states. They also discussed the travel documents of the new Belarus, which would allow Belarusians to travel, stay legally on the territory of the European Union, or travel outside. This issue now concerns not only those who cannot return to Belarus but also those who do not want to associate themselves with the Lukashenka regime. The parties talked about support for Belarus’ national identity, culture, and language – everything that unites Belarusians and is being destroyed by Russian expansion. They agreed on regular consultations, several meetings in the near future, and specific support programs.
