Merkel and Lukashenko discuss need for talks on Belarusian border crisis

Merkel and Lukashenko discuss need for talks on Belarusian border crisis

/ Europe

















Issued on: 17/11/2021 - 17:44





















Migrants wait at the border between Belarus and Poland on Wednesday. © Leonid Shcheglov, Belta, via AFP











German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke again with Belarus's Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday, stressing the need to let the United Nations and the European Commission provide aid to migrants stranded at Belarus's border with Poland.









"Chancellor Merkel spoke again with Mr Lukashenko," her spokesperson wrote on Twitter. "She stressed the need, with the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organisation for Migration and the cooperation of the European Commission, to provide humanitarian aid and repatriation facilities to the affected people."

As in the statement following Monday's phone call, spokesperson Steffen Seibert made no reference to Lukashenko being Belarus's President, referring to him purely as "Mr Lukashenko". Germany and most western countries do not recognize the victory he claimed in last August's election.

Belarus said the pair had come to "an understanding" in the call.

"Having discussed the refugees issue in depth,