Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON: The US is seeking a “suitable candidate” to serve as a special envoy to Belarus, a State Department official said on Thursday.
Responding to a question at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Victoria Nuland, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, said, “we have a very excellent charge conducting most of the on-the-ground contact work.
“Still, our Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasia, Karen Donfried, and her deputy Robin Dunnigan have regularly met with Belarussians to test whether there might be any openings.”
She remarked that she thinks they’ve had little success.
Tsikhanouskaya and the secretary have frequently met with the Belarusian opposition. Nuland stated that the problem is still being worked on and added, “I’m hoping we’ll have someone to talk to you about in the not-too-distant future.”
US ambassador
Shortly after the Russian war in Ukraine started on February 24 of last year, the US embassy in Minsk, the capital city of Belarus, abruptly ceased operations. Julie Fisher, a former US ambassador to Belarus, left her position in June last year.
