Minsk Appreciates Czechs’ Pragmatism, Yet Frictions Quite Possible

The Czech Republic remains one of Belarus' main business partners.

Although the Czech authorities have criticized Minsk over human rights abuses, they have not blocked business ties with Belarus. Economic cooperation has been flourishing but new frictions are possible.

The Czech government continues to support pro-democracy groups in Belarus and has frozen top-level contacts with the Belarusian authorities, but it has been supportive of closer business ties between the two countries.

The Czech Republic has been among Belarus’ major trading partners in the last few years. Bilateral trade increased from about $90 million in 2001 to $465 million in 2011. Czech exports to Belarus amounted to $354 million last year.

Belarus sold steel products, potash fertilizers, tractors, aluminum structures, truck and tractor spare parts, insulated cable, firewood, lumber, polyamides, chemicals and flax goods in the Czech Republic.

Czech businesses hold stakes in 80 companies in Belarus with a total authorized stock of $15.8 million.

Last year, Czechs invested $56.5 million in Belarus, foreign direct investment amounted to $28.5 million.

Czech enterprises helped with modernization of the BelAZ truck factory, the Naftan refinery the Hrodna Glassworks, hydropower plants in Hrodna and Polack, a building material factory in Homyel, and the Hrodna Azot nitrogen fertilizer company. The Czechs helped build three logistics centers in the Minsk region, a mineral fertilizer factory in Homiel and a hog farm in Barysau, Minsk region. AZD, a Prague-based company, installed an alarm system at the Polatsk train station in 2007 and later won a contract to install new equipment at the Brest train station.

In April and May 2012, Minsk hosted meeting of Belarusian-Czech working groups on energy and transportation, and an inter-government commission on economic, industrial, scientific and technical cooperation.

Discussions focused on joint hydro and thermal power, logistics, multimodal transportation, equipment manufacturing and other projects in Belarus.

On the one hand, Czech officials seek to promote democratic values in Belarus, while on the other businesses are willing to expand ties regardless Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s authoritarian style of government.

Minsk has been happy with this approach. However, the Czech Republic is unlikely to act as its advocate and new disputes are quite possible.

Strong ties for ages

Belarusians and Czechs maintained close contacts since the Middle Age. Francishak Skaryna, the first Polack-born Belarusian book printer, worked in Prague in the early 16th century. Czech political and cultural figures provided support to the Belarusian people in their fight for independence in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Prague was a center of Belarusian political emigration between 1918 and 1945.

The two nations pursued close ties World War II, when Czechoslovakia was part of the socialist camp. However, communist ideology and Belarus’ inability to pursue an independent foreign policy hampered bilateral relations.

A new phase in cooperation started in the 1990s, after the socialist camp was dismantled and the Soviet Union broke up. The countries established diplomatic relations on January 5, 1993.

Embassies opened in Minsk and Prague in the late 1990s. However, a political dialogue was held up by ideological differences. The Czech leaders sought to integrate the country into the EU and NATO, while the Belarusian leader was nostalgic for the Soviet Union.

Sour political relations

The Czech authorities have made no secret of their support for opposition groups in Belarus, something that angered the Belarusian government and strained political relations between the two countries.

In the late 1990s, the Czech leadership froze contacts with the Belarusian government but offered assistance to the country’s opposition. Czech universities admitted Belarusian students expelled for political reasons. Renowned Belarusian author Vasil Bykau lived in Prague for several years.

The Belarusian leader was denied a Czech visa in the fall of 2002 when he sought to attend a summit of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. At the same time, his opponent Aliaksandr Milinkievich visited the Czech Republic in October 2005 months before a presidential election.

Prague’s position prompted Minsk to take steps in response. Belarusian secret services stepped up surveillance of Czech diplomats in the Belarusian capital. In February 2006, the KGB accused the embassy of disseminating print matter aimed at destabilizing the political situation in Belarus.

The Czech government denied recognition to the 2006 and 2010 presidential elections, which OSCE observers labeled as not free and fair.

A turning point in relations came in 2008 after the Belarusian authorities released what the EU called political prisoners and declared the intention to build closer ties with the EU. A Russian-Georgian war in August prompted the EU to engage closer with the authorities in Minsk in an effort to woo the country away from the Russian orbit.

Nevertheless, Czech politicians did not cherish any illusions about the Belarusian government's willingness to open up. In September, Alexandr Vondra, Czech deputy prime minister for European affairs, announced that Prague would not support the “immediate” lifting of EU sanctions against Belarus following the release of all political prisoners. “I think the goal is clear.

In view of the current developments around Georgia I think that we all are interested in not pushing Belarus into embrace of its eastern neighbor [Russia]. However, we must be sure that if there is a certain improvement in Minsk it is not a mere episode and that it will be a permanent trend,” he stressed.

Vondra’s concerns were justified. In the wake of the 2010 presidential election, Belarus’ security forces arrested hundreds of protesters, including Lukashenka’s rivals in the race, prompting the EU to impose new sanctions on the country.

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