Tokyo stocks retreat amid geopolitical, economic uncertainties
Tokyo stocks retreated on Wednesday as investors grappled with heightened uncertainties surrounding US monetary policy and geopolitical tensions between Ukraine and Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said that the European Union (EU) is ready facilitate a dialogue in Belarus along with Russia and other institutions amid the ongoing tensions in the Eastern European country.
During a joint conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Macron said, “We hope that this dialogue can be established by the Belarusians themselves. But the EU stands ready to accompany them — if our role of mediation can be useful and desired by the Belarusians, with other institutions, notably the OSCE, and including Russia”.
Merkel said that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko “has not sought to speak” to any EU leaders.
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On Wednesday, Lukashenko said that Western leaders should focus on their own problems rather than the political situation in Belarus, according to the state news agency BelTA.
“They are having a lot of problems at home. Do not point at Belarus in order to draw attention away from the issues in France, the US, Germany and so on,” he said at a meeting of his national security council via video link.
In the election, the President won 80.1 per cent of the votes, while the main opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya garnered only 10.12 per cent.
Tikhanovskaya, who left for Lithuania after publicly denouncing the results, insists that where votes were properly counted, she won support ranging from 60-70 per cent.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron held a telephonic conversation and discussed the situation in Lebanon, Ukraine and Belarus.
The presidents also considered various aspects of the situation in Ukraine. They praised the additional ceasefire measures that were approved at the Minsk contact group meeting on July 22.
On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is concerned about foreign interference in the internal affairs of Belarus.
During a daily briefing, Peskov said, “I will not specify these forces and countries. There is indirect and even direct interference. We are concerned in this regard”.
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