Background: this year Belarus is celebrating a series of 25-year anniversaries of the establishment of diplomatic relations with its key foreign policy partners.

Languages: English, Russian, and German (with simultaneous interpretation).

Organisers: Minsk Dialogue Track-II Initiative.

Aims:

  1. To offer a historical perspective on the emergence and development of Belarus’s sovereign foreign policy and to contextualise its challenges and accomplishments.
  2. To analyse achievements and lost opportunities in the process of establishing and developing diplomatic relations with main foreign policy partners.
  3. To explore alternative approaches to conceptualising Belarus’s foreign policy.

 

Programme  

Thursday, 18 May

18.30-19.30

Reception

19.30-21.30

Night-owl session (off-the-record). Belarusian Factor in the Foreign Policies of Russia and the EU.

Andrea Wiktorin

Head of Delegation, Ambassador, Delegation of the European Union to Belarus

Kamil Kłysiński

Senior Fellow, Department for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, Centre for Eastern Studies, Poland

Wolfgang Sender

Country Director Belarus, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Germany

Andrei Skryba

Researcher, Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies, Higher School of Economics, Russia

Moderator

Yauheni Preiherman

Head, Minsk Dialogue Track-II Initiative

 

Friday, 19 May

9.30-10.30

Opening ceremony, welcoming remarks.

Uladzimir Makey

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus

Sergey Rakhmanov

Chairman, Standing Committee on International Affairs and National Security, Council of the Republic of the National Assembly, Belarus

Yauheni Preiherman

Head, Minsk Dialogue Track-II Initiative

10.30-12.30

Session 1. The First Steps of Sovereign Foreign Policy: Context, Challenges, and Achievements.

Key-note addresses

Vladimir Senko

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus (1994-1997)

Discussion

Olga Abramova

Member of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus (13th convocation), member of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly (2000-2008)

Vladimir Senko

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus (1994-1997)

Aliaksandr Sharapo

Professor and Founding Dean, Department of International Relations, Belarusian State University

Aliaksandr Baichorov

Professor, Department of International Relations, Belarusian State University

Sergey Kizima

Professor, Chair of International Relations, Academy of Public Administration under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus

Moderator

Andrei Rusakovich

Professor, Department of International Relations, Belarusian State University; Chairman of the Board, Foreign Policy and Security Research Centre

12.30-13.30

Lunch

13.30-15.30

Session 2. The Development of Key Foreign Policy Relationships: What Went Right and What Went Wrong.

Key-note address

Mikhail Khvostov

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus (2000-2003)

Discussion

Ivan Antonovich

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus (1997-1998)

Mikhail Khvostov

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus (2000-2003)

Kirill Koktysh

Associate Professor, MGIMO-University, Russia

Henryk Litwin

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in the Republic of Belarus (2006-2010), Poland

Hans-Jochen Schmidt

Ambassador (Rtd), OSCE Ambassador in Minsk (2008-2009), Germany

Moderator

Viachaslau Menkouski

Professor, Department of History, Belarusian State University

15.30-16.00

Coffee break

16.00-16.15

Presentation of the results of the expert survey Belarusian Foreign Policy at 25

Dzianis Melyantsou

Programme Coordinator, Minsk Dialogue Track-II Initiative

16.15-18.15

Session 3. Conceptualising Belarus’s Foreign Policy: from the Diplomatic Breakthrough into the World to Current Challenges in International Affairs.

Key-note address

Piotr Krauchanka

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus (1990-1994)

Discussion

Alon Shoham

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of the State of Israel in the Republic of Belarus

Piotr Krauchanka

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus (1990-1994)

Uladzimir Snapkouski

Professor, Department of International Relations, Belarusian State University, Belarus

Yuri Shevtsov

Director, Centre for European Integration Issues

Andrei Kazakevich

Director, Institute of Political Studies “Political Sphere”

Moderator

Dzianis Melyantsou

Programme Coordinator, Minsk Dialogue Track-II Initiative

18.15-18.30

Concluding remarks.

19.00-21.30

Gala-dinner

Key-note address

Ivan Antonovich

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus (1997-1998)

Sergey Rakhmanov

Chairman, Standing Committee on International Affairs and National Security, Council of the Republic of the National Assembly, Belarus