“The United States wants to help Belarus build its own sovereign country,” Mr Pompeo said after talks with Mr Lukashenko. “We understand you’re a neighbour, there’s a long history with Russia, it’s not about picking between the two,” Mr Pompeo said. I can’t betray Belarus and dissolve it, even into brotherly Russia,” Mr Lukashenko said last month. From Minsk Mr Pompeo flew to Kazakhstan, where he called for “an immediate end” to China’s “repression” of ethnic Uighurs and Kazakhs in the neighbouring Xinjiang region. Mr Pompeo then travelled to Uzbekistan, where on Monday he will meet its foreign minister and his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Source: The Irish Times February 02, 2020 18:45 UTC