VILNIUS, Lithuania: The Baltic country of Lithuania said Friday it had decided to recall five diplomats from Minsk, the capital of Belarus, with a government spokeswoman saying Belarus had demanded that 11 diplomats be sent home.
Last week, Lithuania recalled its ambassador to Belarus for consultations under pressure from Minsk, and Belarus did the same for its ambassadors to Lithuania and Poland. In a tit-for-tat move, Minsk also demanded that the two countries reduce their diplomatic staff in Minsk.
Belarus has made categorical demands to reduce the number of accredited Lithuanian diplomats drastically, Rasa Jakilaitiene, spokeswoman for the Lithuanian foreign minister, said in a statement. Together with Poland, we have decided to recall our ambassadors for consultations in order to reduce tensions and to preserve a possibility to maintain diplomatic relations.”
We hope that this measure will be sufficient to maintain possibilities of dialogue,” she said about the move to recall five more diplomats.
The Lithuanian government has been a strong critic of the political turmoil in Belarus, its southern neighbor.
Lithuania has granted shelter to Belarus opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled Belarus after challenging President Alexander Lukashenko in the countrys Aug. 9 presidential vote. Officials said Lukashenko won a sixth term in office but opposition members say the election was riddled with fraud.
Together with its Baltic neighbors Estonia and Latvia, Lithuania swiftly imposed sanctions against Belarusian leaders, and the European Union a 27-nation bloc that includes the three Baltic nations eventually followed suit with sanctions. Belarus is not an EU member.
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