US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday called for "real progress" in relations between the United States and Belarus, as he met the country's president Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk. Pompeo raised the fact that it was the first visit to Belarus, a close ally of Russia, by a US Secretary of State since 1994, when Warren Christopher accompanied then-president Bill Clinton.
"Two-and-a-half decades, that's too long, we're a bit overdue," he said at a press conference with Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei following talks with the president.
After a long freeze, US has recently warmed ties with a country that is often described as Europe's last dictatorship and has been led by former collective farm director Lukashenko since 1994.
At a meeting at the capital's gleaming Palace of Independence, Pompeo told Lukashenko it had been "too long" and said Washington wants to build closer ties.
"We are confident that together we can make real progress across every dimension of our relationship," he said. "All these things I hope you will see as a good-faith attempt to truly engage politically and diplomatically."
The Belarusian strongman told Pompeo that it was "very good that you risked coming to Minsk after various misunderstandings between Belarus and the US."
He jokingly referred his authoritarian rule as they shook hands, saying: "what makes our dictatorship different is that everyone rests at the weekend but the president works."
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