The Byelorussian Foreign Ministry continues talks with the Foreign Ministry of Poland after the sides exchanged notes of protest following tensions in the bilateral relations emerging after Poland introduced changes in the border regime and organized a seminar for the Byelorussian opposition on its territory, Byelorussia's foreign minister said on Friday. The talks are proceeding normally, Ivan Antonovich told journalists. "We are somewhat insulted by the way Poland, an equal member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe OSCE), acted towards us," he said. "But since we are greatly interested in maintaining friendly relation with it, our great Western neighbour, we are confident these disappointing misunderstandings will be removed." The Byelorussian minister also said he was sure a visit to Byelorussia by Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Germek, who is expected to arrive in Byelorussia at the end of February, will help play down these tensions. Commenting on the recent pronouncements by Byelorussian State Security Committee chairman Vladimir Matskevich that Poland's unfriendly actions and the Polish secret services' active recruiting of Byelorussian citizens "are carried out in the interests of third countries and under their professional supervision," Antonovich said that Matskevich is known to be confident of his words. "This man will not speak of anything which is actually non- existent," Antonovich said. "In this connection, one of the aspects of the negotiations between Byelorussia and Poland, as well as Russia, for these three are linked by common interests, is not to let third forces to dictate what we should do here. The three state have every possibility to settle the situation by themselves." In his words, taking into consideration a recent agreement reached by the Russian and Byelorussian presidents on the coordination of foreign economic policy, in this issue Byelorussia will hold consultations and take a common stance with it ... Read more