Angela Merkel Will Meet with Belarus Opposition Leader
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in Berlin on Tuesday for talks.
“The situation in Belarus after the presidential elections” will be the main topic of discussion, said Merkel’s spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer announced Friday.
Merkel has said that Germany, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, does not recognize the result of the disputed August 9 election in Belarus, in which President Alexander Lukashenko has claimed victory.
The meeting comes after Tsikhanouskaya met French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday in Vilnius, the highest-profile Western leader to meet the exiled opposition leader.
Merkel told reporters Friday that a range of sanctions imposed on Belarus by the EU were “important to strengthen those who want freedom of speech.”