November 1, 2019
In this last year we have seen significant improvement in our bilateral relationship. This is greatly due to an increased commitments from the Belarusian government to expand the space for fundamental freedoms and democracy in addition to finding additional areas and exploring the possibilities for cooperation.
In October we expanded 12 to 18 months the general license for the nine sanctioned Belarusian entities greatly due to the progress that has been made. Nevertheless, we continue to encourage the Belarusian government to make further progress in the areas of human rights, media independence and democratic elections. And with that we can discuss additional sanctions relief.
We have, as I said in my presentation earlier, which is available on our Embassy’s webpage and social media sites, as the political bilateral relationship improves, and the people-to-people contacts deepen, it will bring with it increased investment and trade from American companies.
The American business community has always been one of the key foundations of our bilateral relationship. And I frequently say that American companies make good neighbors in their communities. It is for this reason that we sincerely hope that the Belarusian government will utilize the WTO accession process to make the necessary reforms to its trade regime so that will allow all enterprises and entrepreneurs, both foreign and domestic, public and private – to compete on an even playing field. And this is a key to bringing in increased American investment and businesses.
