Swiss ambassador arrives in Minsk to “find ways for dialogue in today’s politically heated environment”

February 9, BPN. Swiss Ambassador Christine Honegger Zolotukhin has arrived in Belarus. The diplomat announced this on February 8 in her Twitter.

“I arrived in Minsk and will soon take up my functions,” she wrote. “Switzerland’s long-standing bridge-building role and the conviction of the need to maintain dialogue at highest level were decisive for my deployment. It is in this sense that I will set my priorities.”

The website of the diplomatic mission says on behalf of the ambassador that “under the current circumstances it is a special challenge to meet all the needs of the relationship between Switzerland and Belarus in their diversity and complexity.”

According to Honegger Zolotukhin, one of her priorities would be “commitment for the many persons imprisoned for exercising their political and civil rights.” Her second priority focuses on a “dialogue with a broad range of persons.” “It is a special concern of mine to find ways for dialogue in today’s politically heated environment. I will do my best to work on further development of the bilateral cooperation in fields beneficial to our two countries,” the diplomat noted.

On January 31, the Swiss daily Der Bund reported that the new Swiss ambassador was about to arrive in Minsk and assume her duties in the coming weeks.

The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs also informed the newspaper that the diplomat would present her credentials to Lukašenka, who is not recognized by the Western countries as the legitimate president of Belarus. The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs believes that the arrival of the ambassador in Minsk could help 52-year-old political prisoner Natallia Hersche, who also has Swiss citizenship. Detained in September 2020 in Minsk at a protest rally, Hersche was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison under Article 363 of the Criminal Code (resistance to an employee of the internal affairs bodies or another person guarding public order).

Belarusian democratic forces opposed the arrival and work of the Swiss Ambassador in Belarus. In particular, the head of the National Anti-Crisis Management (NAU) Paviel Latuška appealed to the Swiss Ambassador to Poland, Jürg Burri, to condemn the decision of the Swiss authorities to send an ambassador to Minsk.