MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th June, 2021) �The G7 leaders on Sunday pledged to work together on the resolution of the crisis in Belarus, including through calls for new elections and a set of sanctions in response to the Ryanair plane landing in Minsk.
According to the communique, the G7 heads of states are concerned by the human rights situation in the country, including the recent emergency landing of a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius carrying Roman Protasevich, the founder of the Nexta Telegram channel, which the Belarusian government had labeled an extremist. The landing of the plane resulted in Protasevich's arrest.
"We will work together to hold those responsible to account, including through imposing sanctions, and to continue to support civil society, independent media and human rights in Belarus," the G7 leaders said in the communique.
"We call on the regime to: change course and implement all the recommendations of the independent expert mission under the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) Moscow Mechanism; enter into meaningful dialogue with all sectors of society; and hold new free and fair elections," the statement also read.
