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On 4 September 2026, an international conference on the threats posed by Belarus to European security was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the Latvian Institute of International Affairs.
The conference focused on both the ongoing developments in Belarus and the growing threat it poses to the security of the EU and NATO. Most participants in the discussion emphasised that Europe must continue to intensify sanctions and pressure on Belarus.
Gunta Pastore, Ambassador-at-Large for Cooperation with Belarusian Democratic Forces at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Uldis Mikuts, Director of the First Bilateral Relations Department, noted that the situation in Belarus has not changed: repression in the country continues, the Lukashenko regime continues to support Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, and it is increasingly launching hybrid attacks against NATO’s eastern flank, including by exploiting the pressure of illegal migration. As long as the regime does not fundamentally change its repressive policies, international pressure on Belarus, particularly through sanctions, must be strengthened. At the same time, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed Latvia’s unwavering support for Belarus’s democratic community and civil society.
Andrei Kazakevich, Academic Director of the Institute of Political Studies “Political Sphere”, presented the institute’s latest survey findings on Latvian residents’ views of Belarus to the audience.
Participants in the conference included Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova, Director of the Latvian Institute of International Affairs; researcher Beāte Livdanska; researchers Arkady Moshes and Ryhor Nizhnikau from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs; Kamil Klysinski, a researcher at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA); Dzianis Kuchynski, diplomatic advisor to Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya; and other experts.
The conference was organised by the Latvian Institute of International Affairs in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of the “Belarus Research Network for Neighbourhood Policy” project.