The United States on Monday appointed its first ambassador to Belarus in more than ten years, the White House announced, an attempt to bring this close ally of Moscow closer. President Donald Trump called on diplomat Julie Fisher, who is in charge of European affairs at the State Department and who was stationed in Moscow, the US executive said in a statement.
Julie Fisher's appointment will have to be confirmed by the Senate, which suspended its plenary sessions until May 4 due to the coronavirus pandemic but meets every three days in short “pro forma” sessions, gathering only a few senators .
Belarus, unexpected El Dorado for start-ups in Eastern Europe
In 2008, Alexander Lukashenko, the president of this country of 9 million inhabitants, had dismissed the American ambassador in station to protest against sanctions imposed against him, by the Bush administration. These sanctions were carried out in retaliation for elections deemed non-compliant and the suppression of demonstrators.
As a sign of warming relations, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Lukashenko in Minsk in February, the first visit by a high-level American diplomat since 1994.
While saying that the United States was not trying to widen the gap between Belarus and Moscow, Pompeo had said that the United States wanted to help the country, often described as the last European dictatorship, to be "sovereign" .