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EU foreign policy chief calls for urgent steps to restore order at Belarus-Poland border

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said he spoke over the phone with Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei

BRUSSELS, November 16. /TASS/. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said on Tuesday he spoke over the phone with Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei and urged for restoring order at the border with Poland.

"Spoke to Foreign Minister Makei as a follow up to FAC (Foreign Affairs Council - TASS) discussion on Belarus. I called for urgent action to restore security at Belarus border areas with EU and address humanitarian plight of stranded persons there," he wrote on his Twitter account.

The EU foreign ministers on Monday passed a decision on imposing the fifth portion of anti-Belarusian sanctions and agreed to establish a new sanctions mechanism for air companies, travel agencies and individuals responsible for airlifting migrants to Belarus.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said earlier the country’s Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei had held a telephone conversation with German acting Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday and they had agreed that the Belarusian foreign minister would maintain contact with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in a bid to settle the crisis. Makei and Borrell discussed the migration situation at Belarus’ border with the European Union.

The migration crisis at Belarus’ border with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia deteriorated dramatically on November 8, when several thousand migrants approached the Polish border and set up camp there. From time to time they try to break through the fences and cross into Poland, but are stopped by Polish law enforcers.

EU countries accuse Minsk of deliberate escalation of the crisis and call for more sanctions against Belarus. Meanwhile, Lukashenko said that the blame for this situation rests on Western countries because people are fleeing their countries gripped by hostilities provoked by their actions.

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