OREANDA-NEWS. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Kravchenko as Ambassador to the United States. The republic has not had an ambassador in Washington for the past 12 years.

BelTa agency reports that, beside Kravchenko, Andrey Dapkiunas will take the post of Ambassadors to Austria.  In addition to the post of Ambassador to Austria, he was appointed Ambassador to Slovenia and Permanent Representative of Belarus to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and international organizations based in Vienna.

Several more officials received new positions. Former Industry Minister Pavel Utyupin will become the republic’s Ambassador to Kazakhstan. Former finance minister Maksim Yermalovich will be Ambassador to the UK and Ireland. First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Yevdochenko will represent Belarus in the Netherlands.

In 2008, Belarus recalled its ambassador from the USA due to the imposition of sanctions by Washington against the company Belneftekhim. The decision to return the ambassadors was made by the parties in August 2019 after the visit of the US National Security Advisor, John Bolton, to Minsk.