MINSK, 28 May (BelTA) – Outgoing Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Serbia to Belarus Veljko Kovacevic has made a big contribution to the development of bilateral cooperation with Belarus, President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with the ambassador on 28 May, BelTA informs.
“As far as I understand, you are going back to Serbia, unfortunately. But service is service, I understand,” the head of state remarked. “I want to ask you as a friend to tell the president that we hope that the next ambassador will as good as you. We are not against if the next ambassador will be even better.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “More and more ambassadors become our friends.” The president also expressed his opinion about the participation of Ambassador of Slovakia to Belarus Jozef Migas in the Victory Day celebrations in Minsk on 9 May which had ambiguous consequences for the diplomat.
“Probably, you know what the ambassador of Slovakia did. It was a truly worthy gesture. Frankly speaking, I do not fully understand the position of the official Slovak leadership which allegedly criticized his action, dismissed the ambassador or are considering his resignation,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The head of state recalled that the ambassador of Slovakia was raised in a family of a patriot, his father fought against the Nazis, was a partisan, and the diplomat spoke about it many times. “How can you criticize this person?” the Belarusian leader wondered. In his opinion, it is inadmissible to punish a person for such things. “We are close people. How can it be? We fought against Nazism together. And today we are absolutely against it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The head of state explained: “That is why we are paying so much attention to the appointment of ambassadors, we want them to be our friends. We understand that any ambassador will watch over the interests of their country first. The ambassador working in Belarus should glue the relations with Belarus.”
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, Belarus is interested in maintaining good relations with Serbia, and the ambassador should do his best to help establish such relations.
“Therefore, I want you to tell my friend, the president of Serbia, that he needs to find an ambassador who will be as good as you were,” the head of state concluded.
