Belarus President says EU suspended readmission treaty by imposing sanctions

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that by imposing the sanctions against Minsk, the European Union (EU) has suspended the readmission treaty with his regime. In an interview with Russian magazine Natsionalnaya Oborona (National Defence), Lukashenko said “We reached an agreement, signed a treaty. Per this treaty, they had to build us places to stay for people, whom we will take back through readmission. And by imposing the sanctions against us, they have abandoned all of that and are not financing, not building those so-called camps.”

Lukashenko then went on to say that Belarus was not going to suffer the financial impact and said, “They have violated [the treaty], they have withdrawn from this treaty, that is why you cannot expect anything out of [me], as they say. This does not involve me.” In January, last year, the 27-nation-bloc and Belarus signed the visa facilitating and readmission agreements that came into effect in July 2020. It is pertinent to note that the readmission deal aimed to ramp up the cooperation against illegal migration by putting together the procedures to return migrants who entered Europe through Belarus. 

Earlier on Thursday, as the crisis at the Belarus-Poland border continue to escalate and thousands of migrants were left stranded, the Belarusian leader had threatened to close the passage of Russian gas through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline if the EU imposes “unacceptable sanctions” against Minsk. As per the report, Lukashenko assured during a government meeting, “We give heating to Europe and they threaten us to close the border. What if we close the natural gas stopcock?”

Putin warns Lukashenko over cutting gas supply to EU

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko against the possible closure of the transit of Russian gas to Europe through the territory of his nation. In an interview broadcast on Saturday, 13 November on Russian state television, Kremlin leader, as per 20 Minutos report, said, “This would do great harm to Europe's energy sector and would not help the development of our relations with Belarus.” Following Lukashenko's remarks, the Russian President said that his Belarusian counterpart as the president of a transit country can theoretically order the cut off of our supplies to Europe. But Putin stressed that it “would be a violation of the transit contract and I trust that it will not happen.” 

(IMAGE: AP)