BERLIN, November 24. /TASS/. Berlin will opt for the expansion of sanctions against Belarus if Minsk doesn’t change its policy, the coalition agreement reads which was made on Wednesday by Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens parties forming the next German government.
"We are taking the side of the people of Belarus and supporting their desire for a re-election, democracy, freedom and rule of law, we call for the unconditional release of all political prisoners. Russian intervention in favor of [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko is unacceptable. If Lukashenko doesn’t change [his] policy, we will opt for the expansion of EU sanctions to hinder access to finance," the agreement reads, the full text of which was published by Germany’s Welt newspaper.
On Wednesday, Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Arnoldas Pranckevicius stated that the EU must adopt a fifth sanctions package against Belarus immediately as soon as possible due to the migration crisis and start preparing the sixth one. He stressed that the EU should continue to make tangible efforts to ensure that illegal migrants from Asia and Africa entering Lithuania, Latvia and Poland from the Belarusian territory will be returned to the countries where they came from and their transfer by flights to Belarus will be halted.
The migrant crisis on the Belarusian border with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland where migrants have been flocking to since the beginning of the year, quickly unraveled on November 8. Several thousand refugees approached the Polish border from Belarus and refused to leave the area, breaking down a barbed wire fence and attempting to cross into Poland. Lately, migrants have been attempting to cross the border in groups of several tens or hundreds of people. Most of these attempts are foiled by the Polish services. EU countries have accused Minsk of intentionally escalating the crisis and have called for sanctions. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated that Western countries themselves were to blame for this quagmire since these people were fleeing war in their homelands due to the West’s belligerent policies that have wreaked havoc in that part of the world.