Polish President Andrzej Duda said he had agreed with his Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian counterparts to monitor the situation in Belarus, during a video conference on Monday
WARSAW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th August, 2020) Polish President Andrzej Duda said he had agreed with his Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian counterparts to monitor the situation in Belarus, during a video conference on Monday.
"We agreed to continue the close cooperation of the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia... and to jointly monitor the situation," he tweeted.
The four leaders discussed regional security and reiterated their readiness to support political process in Belarus that would reflect the will of its people, Duda said.
Belarus prepares to hold military drills near the border with Poland and Lithuania this week after President Alexander Lukashenko accused neighbors, NATO allies, of hosting war games on the bloc's eastern flank.
Belarus has been engulfed in protests since August 9, when a presidential election saw Lukashenko win over 80 percent of the vote, according to the official figures. The Belarusian opposition refused to recognize the results, and people took to the streets en masse to demand that the president step down.
Police used force during the first several days of the protests, firing tear gas, water cannons, stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters. More than 6,700 people were detained, according to the Belarusian Interior Ministry. So far, there was one confirmed fatality during the protest in the capital city of Minsk, while hundreds of people including more than 120 police officers have sustained injuries.
