Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya began her working visit to Riga with a productive meeting with the Latvian parliamentary group “For a Democratic Belarus”. She thanked the Latvian MPs for supporting Belarusians in exile – particularly for the legislative exemptions they have provided, as well as for their assistance to political prisoners and principled stance toward the regime. She also acknowledged the efforts of the MPs who have joined Libereco’s symbolic godparenthood campaign for political prisoners and called on other deputies to join it.
Ms. Tsikhanouskaya started the meeting by putting forward several practical proposals to strengthen cooperation between Latvia and the democratic forces of Belarus:
- Coordination between the Baltic parliamentary groups “For a Democratic Belarus”: The Belarusian leader proposed establishing coordination among the “For a Democratic Belarus” groups in the Baltic parliaments and holding a joint meeting this autumn in Vilnius.
- Third meeting of the Interparliamentary Alliance: She invited Latvian MPs to join the third meeting of the Alliance of Parliamentary Groups “For a Democratic Belarus,” set to take place in Paris this year.
- Memorandum of cooperation: Ms. Tsikhanouskaya proposed initiating the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between the Latvian Saeima and Belarus’ democratic forces – similar to the one already signed with the European Parliament.
- Implementation of the Luxembourg Solutions: A proposal was made to explore ways to apply PACE recommendations in Latvia to support refugees from Belarus.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “We are living in uncertain times, so I understand how hard it is to keep Belarus in the spotlight. And yet you manage to do it. The most important thing is to understand that Belarusians are not equal to the regime. But they should also not be lumped together with Russians. Thank you for recognizing that”.
