President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko is officially visiting Austria today. This is his first visit to Western Europe since 2016.
Austrian expert on Eastern Europe Gerhard Mangott believes that by hosting this visit, the Austrian authorities want to contribute to the further emergence of Belarus from isolation and the orientation of Belarus and President Lukashenko towards Europe.
“However, Austria’s position is not to bring Minsk closer, as it was with Ukraine, to the European Union by concluding an association agreement, but at the same time removing it from the Eurasian economic community. The Austrian authorities are applying the so-called Armenian model to Belarus. This means that membership in the EAEU remains. At the same time, a smaller association agreement with the EU is concluded,” Mangott said in an interview with Deutsche Valley.
He believes that it is right for Lukashenko, to whom the Western media has attached the nickname “the last dictator of Europe,” to visit Austria, and not the leading countries of the European Union.
“With France or Germany in this sense it would be difficult. There are serious questions about Belarus, especially about the country’s political governance. We are talking about human rights, the death penalty, restrictions on civil rights and freedoms. A visit to a large European country would be excessive if we talk about Lukashenko’s emergence from political isolation. It’s much easier to visit a small European country, not the most influential in the EU, which traditionally maintains good relations with countries in the post-Soviet space,” says the expert.
According to him, Lukashenko in Vienna is seen as a politician who is trying to maneuver between the West and the East, focusing on the EU and Russia.
“In this maneuvering between two poles, Austria wants to be a mediator. She has a position that it should not be: either Russia or the European Union. Both are better. Against the backdrop of such a serious political goal, respect for human rights is not the only important issue,” concluded Mangott.