Minister Grlić Radman: The situation in Afghanistan is a test of the sustainability of the international order

Minister Grlić Radman: The situation in Afghanistan is a test of the sustainability of the international order

Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman met with Belarusian dissident Svetlana Tikhanovskaja in Bled on Thursday, and later traveled to Brdo near Kranj for a two-day meeting of European foreign ministers where the main topic will be the situation in Afghanistan.

Minister Grlić Radman is participating in the Bled Strategic Forum, where he will take part in a panel on cooperation in the Adriatic Sea with his Italian and Slovenian colleagues later on Thursday.

On the sidelines of the forum, the Croatian minister met on Thursday with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the leader of the Belarusian opposition and Alexander Lukashenko's opponent in last year's elections, which were marked as rigged by Western countries. Mass protests erupted after the election as Lukashenko, in power since 1994, responded by violently stifling resistance.

"As the European Union, we have strongly condemned this - the persecution of protesters, their imprisonment and harassment, and we have appealed for respect for human rights, media freedoms and all those freedoms on which the EU is based," said Minister Grlić Radman on Thursday.

"Today we discussed how we can make Belarus and its citizens who strive for freedom even more visible at the European and global level," the minister added.

Gymnich on Afghanistan

Later on Thursday, Minister Grlić Radman travels to Brdo near Kranj where he will take part in a two-day meeting of European ministers in the informal Gymnich format, named after a castle in Germany where such a gathering was first held in 1974.

The Croatian minister said that the priority topic of the two-day meeting will be Afghanistan, which is "the challenge and conscience of humanity".

Afghanistan is "a test of the sustainability of the international world order," said Minister Grlić Radman.

"If we do not show initiative here, if we do not show the strength of unity and ensure peace and stability, then we will hardly be able to meet new challenges."

The Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs said the ministers will discuss prevention of a new wave of refugees through instruments available to the EU, and the evacuation of remaining Afghan nationals who worked for Western institutions.

„We have learned a lesson from 2015, ”said Minister Grlić Radman, referring to the year when more than a million refugees arrived in Europe.

"We were not ready then, as that wave of migrants almost disrupted the stability and survival of the EU," the minister said, adding that today's situation is different.

Source: Hina / MVEP

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