Baroness Rawlings
Main Page: Baroness Rawlings (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Rawlings's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Baroness Rawlings (Con) [V]
My Lords, it seems that Mrs Tikhanovskaya spoke to the Foreign Secretary this month. Can the Minister say what our future relationship will be with Belarus, which was formerly White Russia and known for the purity of its people?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, my noble friend is right. As I indicated in response to an earlier question, my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary has spoken to the leader of the opposition. As I have said on a number of occasions, we want to ensure that the rights of all communities and all citizens in Belarus are guaranteed, and the best way to do that is through free and transparent elections. We have taken measures such as sanctions, including imposing sanctions on Alyaksandr Lukashenko, his son, and six other members of the Belarusian senior Administration, and we will continue to read the situation on the ground and work with international partners in pursuit of this aim.