MINSK, 20 July (BelTA) – New Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to the United States Oleg Kravchenko is set to travel to Washington in August. The news was voiced at the meeting of Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko with new heads of the Belarusian diplomatic missions on 20 July, BelTA has learned.
“You will have to start from the very beginning in the United States,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei stated for his part that a good basis for the development of bilateral relations had been laid down and the Belarusian ambassador is expected there. The charge d'affaires [U.S. Charge d'Affaires in Belarus Jennifer Moore] said that the sooner he would be appointed, the better. We are planning for him to go to the United States in August," the minister said. According to him, Oleg Kravchenko, who will be based in Washington, has a wide network of contacts with various U.S. government agencies. This will help him in his work,” Vladimir Makei noted.
“A lot will depend on your work. We will discuss this in detail later. I will convey my instructions through the minister. We will need support and assistance from the United States of America, especially in the financial sector during this pandemic time. The prospects there are good,” the president noted.
As BelTA has reported earlier, the president appointed new ambassadors to the United States, the Netherlands, Austria, the UK and Kazakhstan on 20 July. First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Yeudachenka was named Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to the Netherlands. Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs Oleg Kravchenko and Andrei Dapkiunas were appointed Ambassadors to the United States and Austria respectively. Andrei Dapkiunas will also serve as Ambassador of Belarus to Slovenia with concurrent accreditation and will be Belarus' Permanent Representative to international organizations in Vienna and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Former Industry Minister Pavel Utyupin was named Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Kazakhstan, while former Finance Minister Maksim Yermolovich – Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and also Ireland with concurrent accreditation.
The post of the Belarusian ambassador to the United States stood vacant for 12 years. The possibility to restore diplomatic contacts between Belarus and the USA to the level of ambassadors was discussed at a meeting between Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko and United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale in September 2019. David Hale said: “Today is a historic moment in American-Belarusian relations. I am glad to participate in the declaration of our readiness to exchange ambassadors as the next step in normalizing our relations.”
