After receiving a diplomatic note from President Zuzana Caputova, Belarusian diplomacy informed the Slovak Ambassador Jozef Migas that the visit of President Alexander Lukashenko to Slovak National Uprising celebrations in August "is not being prepared on a sufficient level and the President himself refuses to participate in such visits." Belarus representatives are now waiting for an explanation of the situation that might be negatively reflected in the future perspective of mutual relationship.
In early June, the Belarusian delegation was invited to mark the 75th anniversary of the SNP celebrations by Parliamentary Chairman Andrej Danko. He insists on inviting President Lukashenko to the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) anniversary in August. As his spokesman Tomas Kostelnik informed, "this invitation does not serve according to protocol as an invitation for an official visit at the highest level.... If Mr. Lukashenko accepts the invitation, Speaker of Parliament Andrej Danko will receive him as his personal guest," said Kostelnik in a press release.
President Zuzana Caputova had announced to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that the invitation for the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) celebrations, given to him by Andrej Danko, did not come from the presidential level. She added that she had not invited to the SNP celebrations the heads of the countries she had visited during her initial trips, either. Asked about whether she would take part in the celebrations if Lukashenko appears there, she answered that she would definitely attend them and refused to answer any hypothetical questions.
Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak claims that if Parliamentary Chair Andrej Danko invited Belarusian President Lukashenko to the Slovak National Uprising celebrations without letting President Caputova know about it, he made a diplomatic mistake. Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini stated on Thursday that Lukashenko's partner is Caputova and he considers her opinion on the matter to be very clear. As Pellegrini added, for him the most important guests at the event will be those who participated in the uprising directly and he will discuss the list of invited guests with the President's Office and Parliament.
Andrej Danko is of the opinion that it would be an honour if the celebrations were attended by representatives of various countries, including Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. "The prime minister and I would like to host at the celebrations the most senior representatives of those countries which participated in Slovakia's liberation," said Danko, adding that the invitation had been consulted and that it should be the Belarusian prime minister who is most likely to attend the celebrations.
