Biden Meets with Belarusian Opposition Leader

SVETLANA TIKHANOVSKAYA, BELARUSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: First of all, I’m so grateful for this meeting, because it was important for Belarusians, for us to have this political will. And it was very, very warm and sensitive meeting. I’m really glad I met the person who says that it’s an ongoing struggle between autocracy and democracy. And so Belarus is on the front line of this fight. So, the USA will be with Belarusians this difficult moment.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Yes. And you spoke with reporters shortly after that meeting outside of the White House. You said that the meeting lasted about 15 minutes. And you said: “I am leaving the White House with confidence that the United States will be with Belarusians both now and later, after a new election.” Prior to this meeting, you had expressed some discouragement that you weren’t getting real tangential issues resolved. You weren’t getting promises from the White House as to what they would do, what actions they would take. Did you get any actions, any promises from President Biden yesterday?

TIKHANOVSKAYA: Look, we are not looking for promises. Our task is to explain what’s going on in Belarus and how the USA could be helpful in our resistance to dictatorship. And we discussed a lot. We understand that we will communicate further. And we together try to look for ways out of the situation. And more the USA can do is isolate Lukashenko’s regime politically, diplomatically and financially, assist civil society, assist those mass media and businesses that had to relocate from the country, and, of course, prisoners and their families. And we also talked about a future vision of Belarus. We will need to restore our country, because, at the moment, regime is destroying all the NGOs, destroying civil society, media, and we will need assistance in the future as well. So a lot has been discussed. And I am sure that everything we discussed will be fulfilled. It’s not about promises. It’s about commitment.