Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told an envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday that he was ready to make a deal on releasing prisoners, the state-run Belta news agency reported.
Lukashenko greeted John Coale, a lawyer acting on behalf of Trump, in Minsk. Coale passed a letter from Trump in English to Lukashenko signed “Donald”, Belta showed.
“If Donald insists that he is ready to take in all these released prisoners, God bless you, let’s try to work out a global deal, as Mr. Trump likes to say, a big deal,” said Lukashenko, who also praised the U.S. leader for seeking a peace deal in Ukraine.
Later on Thursday, a spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Vilnius, capital of neighbouring Lithuania, said Belarus had released 52 prisoners of various nationalities. He said they were now on their way to Lithuania with the U.S. delegation that negotiated their release.
Coale said the fact that Trump had signed the letter simply Donald was “a rare act of personal friendship”.
Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has led Belarus through more than three decades of authoritarian rule.
(Reuters)