On 4 September 2026, from 10.00 to 13.30, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will host an international conference titled Conference on Belarus 2026. The event is organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Latvian Institute of International Affairs.
Since the 2020 protests, the situation in Belarus has not changed. The Lukashenko regime’s repression in the country continues. Belarus, one of the main supporters of Russia’s war against Ukraine, is becoming increasingly active in escalating hybrid pressure against countries on NATO’s eastern flank.
At the conference, experts from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark will discuss the current situation in Belarus, its position on Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, and the threat posed by Belarus to regional security, including the use of illegal migration as an instrument of hybrid warfare. The conference will also examine the ability of Belarusian citizens to preserve their national identity, as well as the attitudes in the Baltic societies towards their neighbour.
The discussions will feature researchers from the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Dr Arkady Moshes and Dr Ryhor Nizhnikau; Kamil Klysinski, a researcher at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA); Pavlo Rad, an analyst at the Ukrainian Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism”; Dr Andrei Kazakevich, Academic Director of the Institute for Political Studies “Political Sphere”; Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova, Director of the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, and Beāte Livdanska, a researcher there; Dzianis Kuchynski, diplomatic advisor to Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya; as well as other experts and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The event is organised by the Latvian Institute of International Affairs in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of the project “Belarus Research Network for Neighbourhood Policy”.
Practical information
- Date: 4 September 2026
- Time: 10.00–13.30
- Venue: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Riga
- Participation: in-person only
- Working language: English
Registration is required to in advance to attend the conference: