Belarus president exploiting migrants to pressure EU on sanctions
November 10, 2021
Watch insights on the latest news about Europe from Carl Bildt, Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations and former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden.
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Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden, shares his perspective from Europe:
What's the nature of the migration crisis between Belarus and Poland?
Well, it's not a migration crisis, really. It's a question of the weaponization of the misery of people. Lukashenko wants to, sort of, exert pressure on Poland and on the European Union because of the sanctions that are imposed upon him for his undemocratic behavior. And that is importing miserable people from the Middle East, flying them into Minsk, probably at great expense to them, and then effectively forcing them over the border to Poland. That has to be stopped, and a number of measures are underway to do that. It's really an unacceptable way of exploiting people.
What's going to be the effect of Vice President Kamala Harris' visit to Paris?
Well, everyone goes to Paris. There's been a lot of effort to smooth over tensions between Paris and Washington, after the Australia submarine, messy handling of that particular deal. I think it will succeed. I think relationship between Paris and Washington are better than they look at the moment.
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