Sekreta Resentfully Recounted How Lithuania's Deputy Foreign Minister Preferred Tsikhanouskaya Over Him
Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Sekreta shared a story with Hintergrund magazine about an unsuccessful attempt to speak with his Lithuanian counterpart at an OSCE meeting. She preferred an event featuring Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Reform.news noted .
Sekreta recounted how the Deputy Head of Lithuania's Foreign Ministry preferred Tsikhanouskaya over him
"Last year, when I was in Vienna for an official meeting within the framework of the OSCE, my colleague, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, was sitting directly opposite me in the hall — face to face. I unobtrusively signaled to her: "Let's step aside for a moment, have some coffee, and discuss practical, pressing issues."
Do you know what she did? She flatly refused to speak with me. Instead, she preferred to attend a political PR event for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. She refused to meet with an official representative of a neighboring country.
Shortly thereafter, my Finnish colleague, also a Deputy Foreign Minister, approached me in the corridor and diplomatically asked: "Ihar, perhaps I should act as an official mediator between you and Lithuania?".
I looked at him and said: "Hold on. We are not at war. Our diplomatic relations are not severed. Why would we need mediators here? If she agrees, we can simply talk directly." Later, the Lithuanian side issued an official statement saying that sitting down for negotiations with me would be tantamount to a "defeat" for Lithuania. For them, mind you! Not for me," he recounted.
Sekreta recently managed to get his own back when he refused to fly to Washington for a meeting with the Lithuanian side.
"Recently, I was seriously offered a meeting with the Deputy Foreign Minister of Lithuania for diplomatic consultations in Washington.
Just imagine the distances: from Minsk to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, is closer than to my parents' home in a Belarusian village! To visit my parents, I have to drive 170 kilometers. The Lithuanian border is only 150 kilometers from Minsk. The Lithuanian government is geographically closer to me than my own mother!
And in this situation, are we expected to fly to Istanbul and then to Washington to hold a meeting on American soil between two direct European neighbors? Is this still normal? Is this the much-vaunted European rationality?" he said.
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