On paper still Europe’s biggest pariah, the Belarusian leader is keen to use the Minsk summit to boost popularity at home and mend fences with the EU.
The last time an EU leader visited Minsk was Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi in 2009 to sign arms and energy deals.
The last time any European VIP was there was when the German and Polish foreign ministers went in 2010 with an offer of €3 billion in return for reforms.
Then, on 19 December the same year, following a rigged electi...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.