{"id":593985,"date":"2026-10-26T08:08:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T05:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=593985"},"modified":"2026-10-26T10:37:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T07:37:50","slug":"rybakou-us-has-set-conditions-for-embassy-to-return-to-minsk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/rybakou-us-has-set-conditions-for-embassy-to-return-to-minsk","title":{"rendered":"Rybakou: US Has Set Conditions for Embassy to Return to Minsk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The United States has set certain conditions for the Belarusian authorities that would allow its embassy to return to Minsk. Belarus\u2019s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Valiantsin Rybakou<\/b>, told Belarusian television.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American embassy was never officially closed. It left Belarus, departed the country and relocated to Lithuania. At the time, the American side said this was due to security concerns, because military hostilities had begun on the territory of neighbouring Ukraine. And, naturally, they used this as a pretext to move to Lithuania. American diplomats have all the necessary documents, visas and permits. As for the embassy\u2019s return, the Americans have raised certain issues with us, with the Belarusian side, which they believe would allow them to relocate fully to Minsk. These issues are actually being addressed,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n

Rybakou also answered a question about establishing direct air links with the United States. According to him, the process of obtaining the necessary authorisations takes a very long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for a flight, this is a very, very lengthy process. How are Kazakh airlines opening their route to the United States? Their process has already been under way for eight years. That is because opening a direct route requires resolving a whole range of issues. These include security, certification of aircraft and pilots, airport staff and so on, and so on. So, you know, we are working on it. This is also one of the issues we discuss on an ongoing basis,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

In December 2025, Aliaksandr Lukashenka<\/strong> said that the issues under discussion included the resumption of operations at the US embassy in Minsk<\/a>. The two sides had been unable to reach an agreement on embassy security and staffing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we could not agree on was the numbers. They said they had marines and that, under their procedures, their people should guard the embassy. I said: \u2018Thank you, no need.\u2019 Kubrakou can provide security better than the marines. If necessary, we can involve Tertel and Khrenin, but we do not need American marines. They are thinking it over,\u201d<\/em> Lukashenka said at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen they raised the question of whether they could hire some of our people so they would not have to bring staff from America. Tertel <\/strong><\/em>(Ivan Tertel, head of the KGB, \u2014 Reform.news note) was present at that meeting. I said: \u2018Ivan will give you the number of our people you can hire,\u2019\u201d<\/em> Lukashenka said last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States has set certain conditions for the Belarusian authorities that would allow its embassy to return to Minsk. Belarus\u2019s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Valiantsin Rybakou, told Belarusian television. \u201cThe American embassy was never officially closed. It left Belarus, departed the country and relocated to Lithuania. At the time, the American side […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":593986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6adf03539f522.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Rybakou: US Has Set Conditions for Embassy to Return to Minsk"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338,143090],"tags":[143118,144236],"class_list":["post-593985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news","category-politics","tag-belarus","tag-valentin-rybakov"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":593997,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593985\/revisions\/593997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}