During the forum in Davos, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with the Prime Minister of Ireland Leo Varadkar. She thanked him for Ireland’s support for Belarusian human rights defenders and independent media. Ireland provides financial support for a major Belarusian media outlet and the International Accountability Platform for Belarus, which gathers evidence of Lukashenka's crimes.
Ireland’s Prime Minister and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya discussed bringing back the conditional “visa-free travel” for Belarusians. Previously Belarusians could visit Ireland with a British visa, but following the war in Ukraine they were deprived of this opportunity along with Russians. The politicians also discussed support for Belarusian cultural projects and initiatives, including those aimed at promoting the Belarusian language, such as joint Belarusian-Irish projects in music or other fields.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya thanked the Irish Ambassador to Lithuania and Belarus for her work and the close cooperation of the Irish Embassy with the democratic forces of Belarus. Ms. Tsikhanouskaya also noted that many Irish MPs, including those representing the Prime Minister's party, have taken patronage over Belarusian political prisoners, and called for speaking out more actively on repression and the situation of political prisoners in Belarus and seeking their release.
The Prime Minister also invited Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to visit Ireland.
