Lukashenka to get blank invitation to Eastern Partnership summit

Lithuanian foreign minister set to meet with Lukashenka to hand him blank invitation to Eastern Partnership summit.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius plans to meet with Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Minsk in October to hand him a blank invitation to an Eastern Partnership summit to be held in Vilnius in November 2013, Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius told the national parliament on Thursday.

"[Linkevicius has] one main goal — he has been tasked by the European Union with going to Belarus, meeting with Lukashenka and handing him an invitation to the Eastern Partnership meeting," Mr. Butkevicius said, according to the Baltic News Service (BNS). "However, a surname is missing from the invitation."

The date of Mr. Linkevicius' visit to Minsk has not yet been agreed upon, Mr. Butkevicius said, explaining that the foreign minister's staff were looking for breaks in his busy traveling schedule.

The summit of the EU's Eastern Partnership program is scheduled to take place on November 28 and 29.

As many as 241 Belarusian citizens, including Alyaksandr Lukashenka, are currently subject to travel bans and 242 persons plus 30 business entities are subject to asset freezes within the EU for their role in human rights violations in Belarus and support of the current regime.

Mr. Linkevicius served as ambassador to Belarus between July 24 and November 28, 2012, and was recalled from Minsk to take the position of foreign minister in Lithuania's new government.