The Trump administration is considering inviting Lukashenko to the US
Trump’s Special Representative for Belarus, John Cole, spoke about this in an interview with the Financial Times.
On 20 March, Lukashenko stated that Trump had invited him to Mar-a-Lago to discuss a ‘big deal’. The day before, he had met with Cole in Minsk and released 250 political prisoners — the largest single release in Belarus’s history to date. In exchange, the US agreed to ease sanctions on the Belarusian financial sector, including the Ministry of Finance and the Development Bank of Belarus, as well as three potash companies — Belaruskali, Belarusian Potash Company and Agrozvit.
Cole declined to specify exactly what preconditions might be put forward for a meeting between Trump and Lukashenko. The envoy hopes that the remaining political prisoners will be released by the end of the year. According to the Belarusian human rights group Viasna, nearly 900 prisoners remain behind bars for political reasons.
Although Lukashenko has repeatedly manoeuvred between Russia and the West during his more than 32-year rule, US officials are attempting to present the current steps towards rapprochement primarily as a humanitarian initiative.
“This is 95 per cent a humanitarian issue. I’m not going to drive a wedge between him and Putin — this is a 30-year relationship,” said Cole, who has visited Belarus several times over the past year and met with Lukashenko.
