"The decision is a response to the expulsion of a Polish diplomat from our Consulate General in Brest, which we view as another unfriendly and unjustified move by the Belarusian authorities," Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said on Wednesday.
A day earlier he told reporters that Warsaw would respond "promptly and appropriately" to an "unjustified decision" by the Belarusian authorities to expel a Polish diplomat.
A diplomat from the Polish Consulate General in Brest has been told to leave Belarus after taking part in an event to honour Poland’s post-World War II anticommunist resistance fighters, according to Przydacz.
He told public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency on Tuesday that the decision to expel the diplomat, Jerzy Timofiejuk, was "not in the interest of the Belarusian state."
"Poland strongly supports an independent and sovereign Belarus; however, the authorities of that country, through their recent decisions, have excluded themselves from a path of dialogue and cooperation," Przydacz said.
"We appeal to the authorities in Minsk to engage in dialogue with its people, free political prisoners and restore basic civil liberties," he added.
Przydacz also told reporters that the decision to expel Timofiejuk placed an added "burden on the difficult relations between the two countries."
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR